Cellemetry Data Service has signed eight new contracts since it was launched almost a year ago, and now provides total coverage to 125 million pops in North America.
The service was developed by BellSouth Corp. in the early 1990s, and launched commercially 10 months ago. Since then, BellSouth has been signing three- and four-party agreements with companies interested in offering a wireless monitoring service using the BellSouth Cellemetry technology.
Cellemetry is a wireless data service. It uses cellular overhead control channels and the Interim Standard-41 network protocol to deliver short data messages. The service appeals to companies that have equipment in remote sites that must be monitored.
For instance, BellSouth has just signed an agreement with AirTouch Communications Inc. in Ohio and Michigan, and Corexco Inc., a pipeline corrosion engineering firm. The monitoring service will be tested this spring on crude oil pipelines in Michigan belonging to Denver-based Total Petroleum Inc.
The U.S. government requires pipeline companies guard their lines from corrosion. Commonly, the companies use rectifiers, which send bursts of electrical current to the pipe to inhibit corrosion.
Use of Cellemetry helped solve two problems for Corexco, said Corexco President Gerard Benchetrit.
“How to communicate with rectifiers in the field with two-way communications, and how to perform the communications in the most cost effective method possible,” he said.
AirTouch believes Cellemetry complements AirTouch’s other data services and broadens the operator’s portfolio of cellular data offerings, according to Lindsey Notwell, director of new products and services for AirTouch in the Great Lakes region.
Other contracts BellSouth has recently acquired:
Open Cellular Systems and Rural Cellular Corp. will offer Cellemetry Data Service to companies interested in monitoring railroad crossing signal equipment. Open Cellular supplies Cellemetry applications for industrial alarm and monitoring. RCC is a cellular operator which also will introduce 1900 MHz service in late 1997.
Uplink Security Inc. and Ackerman Security Systems will use Cellemetry Data Service for alarm monitoring service in Northern Georgia. The two security companies began testing Cellemetry a year ago, using it to transmit security alarm messages to Ackerman’s alarm central station using BellSouth’s wireless network. SunTrust Bank is testing Uplink’s alarm monitoring system in Atlanta, with plans to install the monitoring system in the spring.
A wireless alarm monitoring system has been launched in Sioux Falls, S.D., through an alliance of CommNet Cellular, Uplink and Electro Watchman Inc., a St. Paul, Minn.-based security alarm monitoring company.
The Wireless Datacom Division of Standard Communications Corp. sees great potential for remote monitoring. The San Jose, Calif.-based company offers two devices. The CMM7600 cellular modem module is a complete turnkey solution; the CRM4100 cellular radio module is distributed to original equipment manufacturers. Standard is a subsidiary of Marantz of Japan and Philips NV of the Netherlands.
BellSouth recently licensed Cellemetry technology to Ericsson Inc., which will use it in a new line of radio modems for remote monitoring, including alarm systems, vending machines and copy machines.
