Trucking Technology Alert - Dec. 12
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Both the online report and e-mail are sponsored by @Track Communications, a supplier of wireless communications and dispatch services.
Today's Technology Headlines:
- Cell Phones May Get Own Area Codes
- Motorola to Offer Instant Messenger
- Intelligent Transport May End Traffic Jams
Cell Phones May Get Own Area Codes
In a move that is expected to be welcomed by consumers but opposed by cellular phone carriers, the Federal Communications Commission is expected to shortly allow new area codes to be assigned exclusively to new pagers and mobile phones.The FCC currently forbids such a method of handing out needed area codes, because of the belief that it would confer second-class status to mobile phone companies and their subscribers. State regulators, who are responsible for overseeing area codes, are currently required by the government agency to make area codes available to new mobile, business, and home phones. The FCC rule is not an issue if the state divides a current area, giving one part the new code and the other part the old code--a method that enables calls within each code to continue to be dialed using seven digits.
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Motorola to Offer Instant Messenger
Motorola and AOL Time Warner have signed a multiyear technology and marketing deal that would, among other things, allow the mobile phone manufacturer to incorporate AOL's Instant Messenger feature into its wireless devices.Instant Messenger is currently available on only one other wireless device, the Nokia 3390, which is marketed in association with VoiceStream's mobile phone service. New York Times (12/12/01) P. C4; Greenman, Catherine
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Intelligent Transport May End Traffic Jams
Intelligent transport systems are being used to try and overcome traffic jams. Intelligent transport systems is a general term used to describe high-tech strategies to gather traffic information, manage traffic flow, and inform motorists of congestion ahead.In Southern California, for example, an electronically-accessed, for-profit toll road enables motorists willing to pay $4.25 to avoid 10 miles of clogged public highways between Corona and Anaheim. Motorola and the United Kingdom-based company Trafficmaster are shortly expected to introduce a dashboard-mounted device in Germany and England that will provide motorists with information about the road they are traveling on, and provide them with alternate routes when required. At the same time, the largest purveyor of helicopter-relayed TV and radio traffic reports in the United States, Metro Networks, is now selling its information to providers of mobile phone and other in-car traffic services through its subsidiary SmartRoutes.
Despite all these new developments, there is still a long way to go. The U.S. Department of Transportation says only 5% of highways in the United States are currently equipped to collect real-time information, either through optical sensors standing alongside the highway or through buried inductive loops that sense cars passing overhead. Moreover, almost none of the major surface roads--which carry the vast majority of urban traffic--are wired, while only 16% of freeway miles in the 75 largest metropolitan areas are wired. Wired (11/01); Baum, Dan
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