The demonstration, conducted in late June and early July over the Globalstar satellite network, comes less than four months after the two companies first announced plans to develop the new modem, based on AeroAstro's Satellite
Enabled Notification System (SENS) technology. With the excellent performance of the system in this initial test, the companies expect the
basic modem unit to be commercially available in the fourth quarter of this year.
Mark Ludwig, executive vice president at AeroAstro, said, "This remarkably successful test marks a critical milestone for the delivery of global asset tracking SENS service worldwide, marking the transition to a fully functional, completely global, asset tracking and monitoring system in record time."
The SENS Transmitter Unit is a pager-size simplex modem that can be configured and adapted for use in countless business applications that
require sensing or tracking data to be sent from remote locations. By sending data over the Globalstar satellite network and through AeroAstro's patented decoders at the Globalstar gateways, the modems enable reliable data transmissions in real-time from locations far beyond the reach of any ground-based network - a combination of features never before available in
such a low-cost unit.
"We believe that the Globalstar/SENS technology will beat any other satellite system's technology for low-cost, real-time data communications,"
said Paul Thomas, Globalstar vice president of data products and services.
"Globalstar's unique combination of low-earth-orbit satellites and ground-based switching allows us to deploy new technologies and functions easily and inexpensively. As a result, we anticipate that this new modem will revolutionize the economics of both fixed and mobile asset management in remote locations."