Trucking Technology Report - Sept. 21
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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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Metricom Expands Its Ricochet High-Speed Wireless Services
Broadband wireless Internet firm Metricom will launch its Ricochet service today in Manhattan, Baltimore, Dallas, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Francisco.
New E-Commerce Tool Levels Internet Playing Field for Smaller Carriers
Small and medium-sized trucking companies find it hard to compete with large carriers' online services. Profit Tools hopes to change this with the release of LiveLoad.net.LiveLoad allows carriers to provide billing and other data and services to customers on a 24-hour basis. Carriers can also obtain shipment history, tracking, and pickup info. Web servers and dedicated lines are not needed for LiveLoad, which uses ISP hosting. Customers can view data and put it on Excel, Access, or other tools. Online forms process service requests.
President Brian Widell explained that LiveLoad.net lowers customer service overhead by reducing paperwork and phone time. Fleet Equipment (09/00) Vol. 26, No. 9, P. 85
Aether Buys Motient's Transport Comunications Unit
Aether Systems, a wireless communications provider that has been on a tremendous buying spree, has agreed to purchase Motient's transportation communications arm for $45 million in cash and an additional $22.5 million in target incentives. The deal also stipulates that Motient provide Aether with discounted rates for access to its network of satellite and conventional cables.According to Gregg Smith, Aether's vice president of business affairs, "[The company's] focus is to break into new markets or strengthen existing markets, increase our recurring revenue from subscribers, and acquire technology. Acquisition of the Motient product line accomplishes all three."
Aether also closed a $10.8 million deal to purchase the Sunpro software company earlier this week. Sunpro enables fire departments and rescue crews to use hand-held devices while at the scene of an emergency. Washington Post (09/21/00) P. E3; ElBoghdady, Dina
FCC Staff Proposes AOL Terms
The FCC will approve the merger of Time Warner and AOL, but only if the companies make their cable system open to all other providers of high-speed Internet access, sources say.A draft of an internal FCC document leaked to the media reveals the agency's concern that a combined AOL-Time Warner together with Time Warner's existing cable partnership with AT&T "would create a powerful duopoly through which AOL-Time Warner and AT&T would have the ability and incentive to coordinate their cable deployment strategies." The FCC fears that duopoly would unfairly promote high-speed Internet access through cable at the expense of telephone-based DSL access, the draft shows.
Consumer advocacy groups are pushing the FCC to break the Time Warner-AT&T partnership, and AT&T itself does not want to continue the arrangement and hopes the FCC will force Time Warner to break off their partnership.
Even if the FCC approves the merger, AOL and Time Warner still must receive the blessings of the FTC and the European Union, neither of which seem as near to approving the deal as the FCC. Washington Post (09/21/00) P. E1; Goodman, Peter S.; Klein, Alec
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