(Nikkei BP Group)
(No.1 High-Tech News Site in Japanese)
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| Mobile Medianet to Start Satellite Vehicle-Tracking Service
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October 1, 1998 (TOKYO) -- Mobile Medianet Ltd. announced that on Oct.
10 it will launch a service called EasyTRACS for utilizing the Internet
and a communications satellite to provide customers with data for tracking
vehicles.
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Customers of the service will be able to determine the locations of their
vehicles across Japan.
Mobile Medianet is a subsidiary of Denso Corp., a major manufacturer
of electronics parts for the automobile industry.
The company already offers a similar service, called OmniTRACS, which
utilizes a communications satellite to transmit data to vehicles. It
is possible to use the OmniTRACS system to track the locations of vehicles,
but the new EasyTRACS service will be much less expensive.
To utilize the EasyTRACS system to locate vehicles, the vehicles must
be equipped with devices capable of receiving navigational data from
the U.S. global positioning system (GPS) satellites, and with an antenna
and other hardware for maintaining a link with a communications satellite.
At the tracking center where the vehicle movements are monitored, system
users will need a PC, with the system's special map software installed,
and access to the Internet. After accessing the special EasyTRACS Internet
site and inputting their user ID and password, they can view maps and
lists that display the locations of their vehicles.
The basic monthly fee for the service is 1,500 yen (US$11), with a data
transfer charge of 7 yen per vehicle for each time location data is
requested.
For example, if a vehicle is on the road for eight hours a day and its
location must be checked every 30 minutes, the total cost over a 30-day
period would be 4,860 yen (US$35). That compares with a fee in excess
of 10,000 yen, if the OmniTRACS service was used for the same purpose.
Denso describes the most suitable applications for EasyTRACS and OmniTRACS
in the following way:
If only a few vehicles are to be monitored, EasyTRACS can be used to
determine the current locations of vehicles and the control center can
contact individual drivers by mobile phone or radio in order to give
instructions.
However, in the case of fleets of more than 50 vehicles to be monitored,
then the OmniTRACS service should be used because it enables the control
center to transmit instructions to drivers in the form of text data.
With this many vehicles being monitored, the EasyTRACS service is less
efficient.
If necessary, the same vehicle on-board hardware for the EasyTRACS system
can also be used for OmniTRACS. However, in order to upgrade to OmniTRACS,
some additions must be made to the system. First, a special data terminal,
called the "REGIO," needs to be installed in the vehicles so that drivers
can read text messages sent to them. And additional software must be
installed in the control center computer.
Denso's aim in launching the low-cost EasyTRACS system is to stimulate
the fledgling market for vehicle monitoring services. The OmniTRACS
service is used to monitor the movements of 2,000 vehicles. However,
during its first year of operation EasyTRACS is only expected to attract
subscriptions for around 300 vehicles.
A Denso official said that if more data communications services based
on satellite and Internet technologies continue to appear, the market
will expand.
More information is available in English at: http://www.denso.co.jp/NEWS/n980924a-e.html
(Nikkei Communications)
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