Remote links aid product tracking, fleet monitoring, meter reading
March 8, 2007 By Grant Buckler The Globe and Mail
If you needed cash at the Grey Cup game in Winnipeg last November, you might have used one of the automated teller machines set up on site for the occasion. Normally, cash machines aren't known for their
portability because they usually connect to banks via a telephone line.
However, thanks to Edmonton-based Cash'N Go Ltd., football fans who needed a little extra green for the concession stand used specialized wireless ATMs that connected to their bank computers over the
same cellphone networks they use to make calls.
"That's something that we wouldn't have been able to do without this type of communication," says Walter Thompson, Cash'N Go customer service representative. Cash'N Go was able to set up ATMs
temporarily at the Grey Cup because it didn't have to wait for phone lines to be installed. "As long as there's power, we can have it up and running in a few hours."
More and more, Canadian businesses are using communications devices and services to connect machines remotely in order to increase convenience for customers, track their merchandise and monitor
environmental conditions.
Cash'N Go's customer service specialist, Walter Thompson, with one of the company's wireless cash machines at Edmonton's Rexall Place on Tuesday, March 6, 2007. (JOHN ULAN/FOR THE GLOBE AND
MAIL)
DPL Group, the Saint John-based service provider that supplied the wireless communications modules for the Cash'N Go ATMs, is part of a growing machine-to-machine communications industry that
includes technology for vehicle fleets (called telematics) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags.
ABI Research Inc., a market research firm in Oyster Bay, N.Y., that focuses on technology areas including mobile communications and telematics, says 15 million modules for machine-to-machine
communication over cellular networks were shipped in 2005, a number that it expects will reach 75 million by 2010.
Along with ATMs, DPL provides communication for vehicle fleets, construction equipment and generators. Customers can check remotely to find out where equipment is or whether it needs service. They can
also thwart thefts. Will Kelly, a director at DPL, tells of one instance where a front-end loader vanished from a construction site and DPL's service found it in the woods a couple of kilometres away.
Aeris Communications Inc. of San Jose, Calif. offers machine-to-machine communication services over the cellular networks of Bell Mobility, Rogers Communications Inc. and MTS Allstream Inc., as well as
major U.S. carriers.
Robert Schoenfield, senior vice-president of marketing and development, says popular uses include security, fleet and equipment tracking, and monitoring of factory machinery. Another emerging market, he
says, is smart metering -- remote monitoring of electric, gas and water meters.
Thanks to the Ontario government's Smart Meter Initiative, which aims for all households in the province to have smart meters by 2010, a number of Ontario utilities are experimenting with smart metering.
This eliminates the cost of reading the meters manually, says Dave Herchko, vice-president of corporate communications at Sensus Metering Systems, a Pittsburgh-based smart-metering technology company
that has supplied several Ontario utilities with equipment that allows them to charge variable rates to encourage off-peak usage.
While many smart-metering systems use proprietary wireless networks (which Mr. Herchko says are more economical than cellular networks because of the cost of the transmitters in the meters), digital
cellular networks are the most popular machine-to-machine communication medium over all.
Increasingly, though, cellular networks aren't the only game in town. DPL is readying a new service for ATMs that uses the WiFi networks, which are increasingly popular both in offices and as public wireless
hot spots. The new technology will allow store owners to connect in-store ATMs directly over the Internet using wireless routers, Mr. Kelly says, and will cost about $10 a month compared with $25 a month
for the cellular version.
New standards such as WiFi and WiMax and a short-range wireless technology called Zigbee are joining cellular networks and satellite connections, says Sam Lucero, senior analyst at ABI.
Components for these sensor networks were a $13-million market in 2005, Mr. Lucero says. He predicts this will rise to about $400-million by 2011.
These new technologies promise lower costs for equipment and communications, permitting new applications and more comprehensive monitoring. For example, Mr. Lucero says, it is becoming easier to
monitor factory equipment electronically rather than checking it manually. This allows operators to keep closer tabs on the machinery while employees spend less time in unpleasant and sometimes dangerous
environments.
As wireless networks spread, Mr. Schoenfield expects to see the day when cars automatically call 911 when they're involved in an accident, and remote monitoring of industrial machinery becomes
commonplace. Eventually, conversations between humans could be in the minority in such networks.
Machines, talk among yourselves.
