GPS Tracking ROI

BETHESDA, Md., April 17 (UPI) — Iridium Satellite, KDDI Network & Solutions, and Pioneer Navicom have completed air trials of a helicopter tracking system in Japan.

Developed by Pioneer, the automatic helicopter tracking system automatically transmits GPS position coordinates to ground stations and uploads destination point, routes, and text messages to the aircraft through Iridium’s satellite network… Full article here:

More of that Banana News today. I just mentioned tracking helicopters and here is some news that makes me even happier. There are a lot of companies who try to offer GPS tracking with the wrong technology and expect the user to take up the slack. When you track something critical and mobile, like Medivac helicopters or fire and rescue helicopters you have to have a communications link that will work, no matter where the aircraft may have to fly. Especially when you have a company who does large part of their business with cellular or other earth-bound “wireless” technology, watch out.

Unlike many US cellular companies, my friends at KDDI (Kokusai Denshin Denwa Co., Ltd.) really understand the full spectrum of communications, not just their extensive work in cellular. Believe me, if you ever have the chance to travel to Japan you’ll find out just how archaic and feature-limited the cellular networks are here in the USA.

At any rate, cellular won’t work for tracking airborne mobile assets … in the US, Japan, or anywhere else. There are a number of different satellite-based communications choices you could consider (Hmmm… guess I out to run a tutorial on that subject, way too much for a single Blog post). One choice which used to be horrible and near-unworkable is the Iridium network. This is a dedicated communications network of satellites that truly spans the glob in near-real time. In fact, it’s the only network that can really do this kind of full-time tracking.

Those who dislike the USA or even those of us in the USA who like to talk down about our military of course have been had me bring to their attention that bad-mouth all they want, the world-wide, free to all GPS system is a benefit from our fine old US war-mongers. Motorola and some other big names in communication put together the Iridium network some year sago, but stubbed their toe badly in trying to make it a commercial success. In typical Enron or World Comm fashion their way out seemed to be to destroy the system. The operators of the satellites were within days of firing their steering engines to cause them to plunge into the earth’s atmosphere and burn up … when in stepped .. who else … the US military who realized what an asset the Iridium network was, and unlike the business-challenged operators knew a way to make it commercially as well as militarily viable. So, if your hobby is bad mouthing the US and the US military, don’t say Iridium in the same breath. Another world-wide asset brought to you by our boys in Blue.