So how is it that the former President of the United States of America, Bill Clinton, and George LeBron, some wireless guy at a Scandinavian company, Telenor Connexion, have some sort of connection? There are two main reasons.

First, President Clinton indicated that the wireless industry is a remarkable example of what works in life, as the industry has established “Creative networks of cooperation”. This has led to incredible societal growth and advancements throughout the world. Likewise, Telenor Connexion has established partnerships of cooperation around the world to offer solutions to problems our clients have encountered over the years. We are all benefitting from this.

Second, President Clinton stated that what doesn’t work in society are “the systems that got societies where they are, become too rigid”. Hearing this point took me back only a few hours to a meeting I had with James Brehm, Senior Strategist at Compass Intelligence. During my meeting with James, he asked who do we engage with, and are we growing. My response was “James, at Telenor Connexion we are engaging with those in the market that have implemented solutions that are too rigid, and therefore need a scalable solution.  We also engage with those that strive for flexibility. Our solutions are providing our clients with a market advantage. We find ourselves quietly gaining momentum in the marketplace.” I can’t help but wonder if President Clinton would have felt a connection with my answer. I have a feeling he would have.

CNET review: Bill Clinton: Learn from the wireless industry

Yes, it’s definitely true that a dormant SIM signals less in the GSM networks. One downside from an OEM perspective, however, is that a dormant SIM by definition will have limited service possibilities and only allow for support  of the basic eCall service -  what we in GSMA call “vanilla eCall”. The limited service occurs because it’s impossible to contact a dormant SIM using outside resources. With a dormant SIM installed in a vehicle any service needs to be initiated from inside of the car (for example when the car crashes). 

Some may not have considered though that the real convenience related to Dormant SIM is for the consumer. Because a Dormant SIM does not signal at all until it performs an eCall, it means there is no location information available about the vehicle until the crash or emergency call is placed. If you use a signaling SIM instead the terminal inside the consumers’ vehicle gives away location information to the GSM network it’s attached too periodically. And information will be available every time the terminal performs a handover, i.e. changing cellular coverage. This would allow others to easily track the location of the vehicle – unknowingly to the driver, and would be a breach of his or her privacy.

Do we really think this is a feature that consumers want?

I would say no. We, and I, as a consumer don’t want that! We as consumers should demand the use of dormant SIM for eCall – unless we have agreed to subscribe to additional telematics services.

Maybe the name “dormant SIM” is a bit misleading….it’s actually more like an invisible SIM from a consumer perspective. And it was with the consumer in mind that the GSMA created the concept. A reduction in the overall signaling in GSM networks is only an extra benefit.

Telenor Connexion to provide global connectivity solution for scientists on six continents 

Microwave Telemetry Inc., a global leader in avian and marine tracking has selected Telenor Connexion, the leading enabler of premium connected services, as connectivity provider for its state-of-the-art tracking devices.

The company manufactures reliable and accurate electronic devices for tracking avian and marine species using cutting-edge technologies. Microwave Telemetry’s continual effort to develop smaller and smarter devices is driven by the needs of researchers and scientists worldwide.

Telenor Connexion is providing Microwave Telemetry with a one SIM and one rate GPRS/GSM global solution working on six continents. The key component of the solution is Telenor’s patented eSIM, a robust and reliable SIM card especially suited for harsh environments.

“Besides being an experienced and reliable embedded connectivity partner responsive to our product requirements, the decisive factor when selecting Telenor Connexion as our exclusive provider for GPRS and SMS data services, was the eSIM. Device size and extended temperature range is critical in our application for avian and marine tracking and the Telenor Connexion eSIM is half the size of a standard SIM card.”, says Paul W. Howey, Ph.D., President and Founder at Microwave Telemetry Inc.

The premium M2M solution from Telenor Connexion does not only allow Microwave Telemetry to to continue their device design process without any delays to their product development schedule, it also enables them to provide a worldwide tracking and monitoring system, capable of tracking wildlife for thousands of kilometers, covering entire migration routes.

The connected devices collects data and processes locations sent from animals carrying transmitters. The data are then delivered to scientists and researchers around the world via Microwave Telemetry’s proprietary web application.

“Wildlife tracking or GPS Telemetry is another high-potential growth area for embedded connectivity applications. We are very proud to be part of Microwave Telemetry’s global tracking solutions as they (the devices) play a valuable role in worldwide behavioral and migration studies and in the protection of  endangered species”, says George LeBron, Head of Market Development Americas at Telenor Connexion.

(Picture of tracking unit on an immature Bald Eagle just before being released.
Photographer: Lance Jordan.)

For more information, please contact:
Cathy Bykowsky,  Customer Support, Microwave Telemetry Inc.
support@microwavetelemetry.com,  +1 410-715-5292

Kristina Grandin, PR and Communications, Telenor Connexion
kristina.grandin@telenor.com , +46 734 25 26 21

About Microwave Telemetry, Inc.
Microwave Telemetry, Inc. is a global leader in satellite tracking technology. Located near Washington, D.C. in Columbia, Maryland, US, the primary goal of the company is to provide state-of-the-art avian and marine tracking technology for scientists. Founded by biologists, the innovative products are designed with biologists and their goals in mind. The company’s mission is to advance the integrative fields of electronics and ecology, with conservation as the driving motivator behind each new design.
For more information please visit www.microwavetelemetry.com

Read the full M2M Now blog post here!

Telematics Detroit is a business focused conference and exhibition for the entire telematics ecosystem with 1800+ executive attendees and 100+ industry speakers.

Meet us there!
To set up a meeting, please contact:

George LeBron, Head of Market Development Americas
Andrea Sroczynski, Head of Global Automotive Sales

More information about Telematics Detroit here!

Read the full M2M Now blog post here!

This podcast touches upon some of the challenges presented by the demand to integrate dynamic and easily updateable content into the vehicle.

Listen to the podcast here!

Of course this is a quite natural progress in a heavily technology driven environment where there always will be a component of technology push in the early days. As always one of the topics discussed during the conference was, if and how, M2M as such will live up to the analyst predictions of extreme growth the coming 10 years. In contrast to the analyst predictions of the future, Volvo showed a hockey stick curve based on real up-take of the OnCall system that can be bought as an option to Volvo cars. The interesting part was that the hockey stick effect came when Volvo launched a suite of features such as remote heater start, remote door un-lock/lock, find my car (in a large parking lot) and more. Everything nicely packaged and accessible as a smartphone app. Essentially this is quite basic services, based on the same technology solution but suddenly people can relate to the service, it is easy to understand and they can show it to their friends.

In effect, not only does this make it easier for the car dealer sales guys to promote the service but it also means that the Volvo customer is doing much of the promotion and sales! Just because the value of a warm car (remotely started from my smartphone) is high, understandable and move the focus away from the techy side of M2M to a tangible service easily accessible from my smart phone. I believe that in order to create real mass market update for M2M this type of consumer pull effects is vital…

So what can we learn? I think that it is obvious that the whole industry needs to further focus on the end-user services and step away from the more technical approach that is still quite common. One first step for the telco industry is to scrap the acronym of M2M which is techy, hard to understand and not really applicable to the end-user value. Please could someone come up with something better?