Airbiquity Inc., a company that develops wireless in-band modem
software solutions for automobile manufacturers and suppliers, today
announced its involvement in the successful pan-European eCall
Feasibility Trial. The trial was conducted by ADAC, Europe's largest
automobile club with over 16 million members, to demonstrate how eCall
can be realized and play a role in saving thousands of lives.
The objective of the trial was to assess the recommended
pan-European eCall implementation, and focused on challenging network
conditions such as cross-border environments and areas with poor
cellular coverage. Partners in the trial included Adam Opel, T-Mobile
Deutschland, Continental Automotive Systems GmbH (Neubiberg),
Automobile Club d'Italia (ACI Global Spa, Milan), and the
Osterreichischer Automobil-, Motorrad-und Touring Club (OAMTC,
Austria). The results of the trial concluded that an eCall system
using Airbiquity's technology exceeded the performance requirements
recommended by the eCall Driving Group.
Airbiquity's technology was a key component in the success of the
trial, where their aqLink in-band modem and aqServers were used to
transmit and disseminate vital GPS and emergency data from Opel test
vehicles in various locations throughout Austria, Germany and Italy.
"Airbiquity has a long-standing history of deploying safety
applications, and has already played a key role in saving thousands of
lives in the United States with our deployment in over six million
vehicles," said Kamyar Moinzadeh, president and CEO, Airbiquity. "The
results of this trial further prove that our in-band modem works as
expected in other parts of the world, including Europe. We are very
pleased with the results of the trial, and we're happy to play a part
in the realization of pan-European eCall."
Europe's eCall initiative proposes the use of GSM or UMTS mobile
networks to contact emergency services automatically when the airbag
is deployed, or when summoned via special eCall buttons built into a
vehicle's cockpit area. Once activated, emergency responders are able
to secure voice communication with accident victims through the mobile
network and can automatically obtain the location of distressed
vehicles via GPS satellite location technology.
As a result of the positive outcome of the trial, the German and
Austrian governments signed the eCall Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) in favor of adopting the eCall initiative into all new
automobiles by 2010. Additional members of the European Union are
expected to sign the MoU in the coming months.
The eCall MoU requires that a minimum set of incident data (MSD)
be sent to the eCall operator answering the emergency call. In April
2006, GSM Europe (GSME) released a position paper entitled GSME
Position: Options for eCall MSD Signalling in which they named in-band
modem technology as the preferred eCall MSD signalling system.
Airbiquity's aqLink in-band modem facilitates connections between
vehicles and emergency service providers using over-the-air data
transmission via either an embedded system or a Bluetooth hands free
system, and works over UMTS, GSM, and CDMA mobile networks. For this
trial, the company's aqServers were in use at ARC call centers in
Germany, Austria and Italy, collecting and distributing critical
location and incident information to regional response teams, ensuring
fast and reliable emergency service deployment. Airbiquity's unique
approach to data transmission makes it possible to transmit both GPS
location data and emergency information over conventional cellular
phone channels, radically cutting down on the time and resources
needed to respond to roadside emergencies.
For more information about eCall, please visit
http://esafetysupport.org/. For more information on the results of the
ADAC eCall trial, please visit www.airbiquity.com/eCallTrial.
About Airbiquity
Airbiquity provides software solutions that enable product
suppliers and service providers in the M2M and telematics industries
to deliver reliable and ubiquitous data communications by leveraging
existing wireless networks. Used by some of the largest automotive
manufacturers in their telematics service offerings, Airbiquity's
patented aqLink(R) software modem performs in-band signaling for data
communications over digital wireless telecommunications networks. To
learn more about Airbiquity, please visit their web site at
www.airbiquity.com.