Trucking Technology Report - Nov. 7
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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:
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Leap Wireless to Buy 30 Midwest Licenses From CenturyTel
Leap Wireless International Inc. (LWIN) said it would buy 30 wireless licenses from CenturyTel (CTL). The $205 million deal will enable Leap Wireless to provide coverage for up to seven million residents in five states. Fort Wayne, Ind.; Duluth, Minn., along with a few key metropolitan areas in Michigan are among the regions covered by the operating licenses.
Semiconductor Maker Broadcom to Buy Chipmaker SiByte
Broadcom Corp. (BRCM) formed a roughly $2 billion stock deal to acquire chip manufacturer SiByte as part of its effort to incorporate chips for broadband Internet access and speedier enterprise networking into its own line of integrated circuits for high-speed communications.SiByte, which lists its Mercurian network processor as its only product, has yet to post any revenue. Cisco Systems (CSCO) and Juniper Networks Inc. (JNPR) are among its financial backers.
SiByte develops chips that manage and route data across local area networks. Its chips are also used for wireless communications, VoIP, and wide area networks. The purchase is part of Broadcom's plan to expand its line of communications chips that can hasten the transfer of data among networks. Wall Street Journal (11/07/00) P. B6; Williams, Molly
InfoSpace Looks to Bring Voice Recognition to Internet
InfoSpace Inc. (INSP) confirmed it is purchasing Locus Dialogue, a developer of technology that can identify speech and translate text into voice. The will enable InfoSpace to provide speech-recognition services for users of mobile devices, the company said.According to the terms of the agreement, InfoSpace will issue at least 4.3 million shares, but not exceeding 5.5 million shares, of common stock to provide payment for Locus. The final payment arrangements will be made when the deal is completed, which is expected to be by the close of the year. According to current InfoSpace share value of $23.31, the deal is worth between $100.2 million to $128.2 million. Wall Street Journal (11/07/00) P. A10
Verizon Launches WAP SuperPages.com
Verizon Wireless plans to offer its SuperPages.com Yellow Pages service to users of WAP phones. The service allow users to locate local merchants and get driving directions. SuperPages has over 13 million listings for business and residential numbers. Patrick Marshall, Verizon's (VZ) group vice-president of marketing for information services, says the application will provide consumers with instant mobile access to the Yellow Pages. Users of the service also will be able to call a merchant while surfing through the directory. Reuters (11/06/00); Saunders, Christopher
Information Exploding by the Petabyte
The Internet has created so much new data and has simplified the means to create even more data that users do not know how to process or present all of the data available to them, industry observers say.According to a recent study from the University of California at Berkeley, data production worldwide in 1999 equaled 1.5 billion gigabytes. That total will only continue to advance and has created what Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert Simon calls a poverty of attention. Users do not want to wait longer than eight seconds to receive data, argues Paul Borrill, CTO of Veritas Software. He believes that handling all of the new data being produced will not be a problem but that only those who learn how best to present that data to consumers will succeed in the information age.
Storage-system maker EMC (EMC) has turned its attention to the information-management market, noting that each household will soon require 1,000 GB of data just to store its own records. "With this huge deluge of data, a lot comes down to availability," says EMC CTO Jim Rothnie. "Data that's scattered everywhere is often wasted and never exploited." The market for data-storage systems will be worth $100 billion annually in five years, Rothnie predicts.
Observers say this explosion of information reveals the extent to which use of the Internet has changed everyday life. The Berkeley study found Internet use has grown by 2,000%, and another report found the Web contains more than 1 billion Web pages. Investor's Business Daily (11/06/00) P. A8; Deagon, Brian
Union Pacific Looking to Telephone-Based Tech to Track Cargo
Charlie Duckworth, director of electronic commerce for Union Pacific (UNP), is interested in using telephone-based technology to track railcars. He believes the loading dock worker needs a telephone-based system to track cargo until computers are universal for them. Voice-recognition software can either recognize many words from one individual, or few words from several voices. Duckworth says that the software could help customers perform car requests for switches and releases. However, the cost of the system may not be feasible as an interim product. Web technology will remain the center, however, instead of telephone tracing.
Union Pacific wants to increase its customers' use of the Internet, but the problem is that many customers do not have the resources to join with UP's systems. About 6% of UP customers use the Internet, but 90% use EDI transactions.
John Dalton of Forrester Research said tracking cargo via phone is risky due to errors. Background noises can cause problems with voice recognition, so a keypad becomes necessary. Dalton does think that voice technology can save money, but will not replace the Internet. TrafficWorld (11/06/00) Vol. 264, No. 6, P. 39; Hickey, Kathleen
Europeans Say Shippers Will Dominate Transportation Exchanges
Garry Mansell, chairman of the European Shippers Council and managing director of Mars' transportation exchange, has warned that shippers will determine the use of online transportation exchanges.Some carriers have been slow to accept the exchanges, due to the focus on simple auctions. European exchanges have mostly been formed by cargo owners, and Mansell predicts the trend will continue.
The business to business companies will need traditional backing to survive. TrafficWorld (11/06/00) Vol. 264, No. 6, P. 20; Parker, John
Aggregate Haulers on the Web-based High Road
Aggregate Haulers Inc. is using the ServiceHub Web-based wireless dispatch management system to ensure that drivers working out of its San Antonio facility receive their schedules for the next day at the end of each day's work.The ServiceHub application allows small and mid-sized companies to send assignments, in password-encrypted form, to drivers' telephone systems via the AT&T Wireless (AWE) Digital Packet Data network. Drivers - mostly owner-operators - use the system to inform the company when they have completed a job, and a button on the keypad enables them to alert the office of any problems.
Aggregate Haulers' main customer, Martin Marietta Materials, transmits order information to the carrier over an online network, and the orders automatically move on into the dispatch-management system. Commercial Carrier Journal (10/00) Vol. 157, No. 10, P. 28
Internet2 Is New Lab for Communications Research
The Internet2 research network is generating a number of new technologies that will eventually bring vast improvements to the commercial Internet. Over 180 universities and roughly 70 companies are participating in the project, creating new applications in areas such as medicine, computer science, and communications.George Washington University is working on video conferencing technology that allows users in separate locations to communicate over a 768K connection. GWU's Jerald Feinstein says the project could eliminate the need for business travel by allowing geographically separated users to see each other's facial expressions and body language.
Other participants are working to improve quality of service over the Internet by making more reliable connections and developing switches and routers that dispense bandwidth more efficiently. These advances will help bring down the price of Internet service for major users, says George Mason CIO Joy Hughes.
Internet2, which consists of the separate Abilene and vBNS networks, is funded by federal grants and participating institutions, which spend an average of $1 million a year on the project, says Internet2's Greg Wood. Potomac Tech Journal (10/30/00) Vol. 1, No. 40, P. 1; Robblee, Steve
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