Telematics providers team up

Mannesmann TeleCommerce GmbH (Ratingen, Germany) with its telematics division Passo, a wholly owned subsidiary of Mannesmann AG, which was recently acquired by the British-based Vodafone AirTouch Plc., has purchased an approximate 20% equity stake of ATX Technologies, Inc. (San Antonio, TX). Both companies see this investment as a significant step in providing telematics and location-based services on both sides of the Atlantic, especially to automotive customers.

The liaison will benefit many of their mutual customers—automotive manufacturers—that need global telematics solutions. The move also promotes a consistent service offering for automotive customers within the European and North American markets. In addition, the companies have aggressive plans for expanding location-based service into wireless industries and Internet services.

"For years our customers have asked us to support their European telematics efforts, and until now we have not been able to help," said Steve Millstein, ATX president and CEO. "By providing common, trans-Atlantic telematics services, we will be able to reduce costs for automotive companies and their customers by using a common wireless protocol and common hardware platforms."

Mannesmann TeleCommerce with its Passo telematics division currently provides telematics services via GSM wireless communications to automotive manufacturers, fleet operators, wireless networks, and on the Internet. Its customers include BMW, which offers telematics services packages across its car model range. The services are currently operated in Germany with the U.K. to follow later this year and other major European markets shortly thereafter.

Passo also currently offers Internet and WAP-based personalized traveler services and operates data gateways such as short message services (SMS) and customized WAP gateways for key customers. It provides expertise in the processing of highly accurate traffic information via Floating Car Data (FCD)—a procedure to determine the traffic situation onboard a moving vehicle and to transfer compressed data via cellular to the services center for traffic information processing. Passo pioneered commercialized broadcasting of traffic information via cellular broadcast in GSM networks, a service that today is already operational in Germany.

Edited by Ellen Jensen