Saying it wants to make wireless information systems affordable to everyone, Seiko Corp. announced it has formed a new business unit and dumped $57 million into a project to implement the plan.
Japanese watchmaker Seiko, based in Tokyo, said it will deploy a high-speed global wireless communications network designed to distribute information to common consumer products, including car radios, watches and portable computers, using FM subcarrier stations. The wireless network, called ACTTIVE, eventually will have worldwide coverage when international agreements are confirmed, according to Seiko. ACTTIVE will be managed by a new unit called Seiko Communications, a joint venture between Seiko Corp. and Seiko Epson Corp.
Distribution from radio stations’ unused FM frequencies will let the ACTTIVE network transmit a variety of information, including personal messages, emergency notification broadcasts, traffic data and commuter reports, navigation maps, news updates and daily checking-account balances, to personal communications devices.
Emergency information services like weather conditions, ozone and pollution warnings and pollen alerts also could be added, Seiko said.
Car radios, home appliances and other electronic devices will be able to display information when outfitted with Seiko’s Advanced Communications and Timekeeping Technology, or ACTT, chip set. But the company initially plans to launch the service using its MessageWatch pager, an information receiver housed in a standard wristwatch. The MessageWatch receivers have been market-tested in the Pacific Northwest.
The MessageWatch costs $79.95, and monthly fees for the FM service start at about $6.95 per month, according to Seiko.
The ACTTIVE network is currently online in Seattle and Portland, Ore., and will be rolled out in Los Angeles next month. The company plans to have coverage in the top 20 U.S. markets within the next year, and true nationwide coverage by February 1996, according to Steven Maislin, chairman of Seiko Communications of America Inc., one of three Seiko Communications divisions.
Customers currently participating in Seiko FM subcarrier trials receive personal messages, weather forecasts, local sports scores, financial market updates, voice and electronic mail notifications, winning lottery numbers and ski conditions on their Seiko pager watches.
Seiko will provide the ACTT chip sets to companies to put in all types of consumer electronics products. General Motors Corp. plans to put the chip set in car radios made by its Delco Electronics unit, and IBM Corp. has plans to use it in some of its portable computing devices.
Seiko is not new to the wireless information business. In the late 1980s, the company formed a working relationship with AT&E Corp., a Beaverton, Ore.-based company that hoped to get an FM subcarrier network off the ground, and contracted with Seiko to build the MessageWatch product.
An ill-conceived product line and lack of commitment to deploy service on a large scale put AT&E out of business, according to Maislin. But Seiko took over the company because it believed in the FM subcarrier network concept.
“Seiko has an excellent retail distribution network,” said Maislin, adding that will help the company compete with other nationwide messaging companies looking to offer similar services. Seiko’s FM subcarrier network, which uses variable time-sequenced simulcast technology, is no longer inferior to other technologies, he noted.
ACTTIVE transmits data at 19.2 kilobits per second, according to Maislin, and an atomic clock updates the watches automatically 36 times each day. Time also automatically changes when traveling in another time zone. The receivers reportedly have an 18-month battery life.
