Cinterion Successfully Demonstrates “112” European eCall with Latest In-Band Machine-to-Machine Technology

Cinterion Successfully Demonstrates “112” European eCall with Latest In-Band Machine-to-Machine Technology

Munich, Jan 31, 2011–Cinterion, the global leader in cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and a Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) company, together with DENSO, a leading automotive supplier, demonstrated “112” pan-European in-vehicle emergency call (“eCall”) at the second ERTICO – ITS Europe(1) assembly in Brussels on January 26, 2011. This success coincides with the launch of the HeERO(2) pilot program, scheduled to unfold from 2011 through 2013.

The 112 eCall system aims at promptly alerting emergency services, thus helping to save lives and increase road safety. An emergency call is generated either manually by a person inside the vehicle, or automatically through the activation of in-vehicle sensors if an accident occurs. Upon activation, the in-vehicle system establishes a 112-voice connection directly with the most relevant Public Safety Answering Point. A Minimum Set of Data (MSD), including key information about the accident such as time, location and vehicle description, is sent over the voice channel to the emergency staff at the relevant Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

“We are looking forward to continuing interoperability testing in the field during the HeERO pilot phase, as well as providing our knowledge and best-in-class M2M modules,” said Marcel Visser, Cinterion Vice President for Automotive at Gemalto. “We are committed to providing active support towards the successful deployment of a pan European eCall solution for better road safety.”

For the 112 eCall demonstration, Cinterion integrated the latest version of the 3GPP/ETSI in-band technology standard(3) in its automotive cellular modules. DENSO International Europe integrated this Cinterion communication module into an In Vehicle System upgraded prototype.

In the demonstration, multiple MSDs were quickly and successfully transmitted from the Cinterion module embedded in the In Vehicle System to an eCall PSAP in-band modem, proving the ability to integrate the latest 3GPP eCall in-band specifications into a field solution.

1) ERTICO – ITS Europe is a multi-sector partnership pursuing the development and deployment of Intelligent Transport Systems and Services (ITS) in Europe.

2) HeERO is the Harmonized eCall pan-European Pilot funded by the EU Commission. Italy, Germany, Romania, Czech Republic, Greece, The Netherlands, Croatia, Finland and Sweden are the nine countries which will implement, test and operate ecall pre-deployment pilots during the next three years, through the HeERO project. In order to prepare for the deployment in Europe of the infrastructure necessary for the provision of the ecall service, they will together implement, operate and validate in real-life environments the European eCall agreed standards, the needed technical and operational infrastructure upgrades and the value-added services that can be linked to the eCall open platform. HeERO will also carry out a task for the certification and homologation tests and procedures for the eCall systems and end-to-end services.

The pan-European in-vehicle emergency call, “eCall”, is estimated to have the potential to save up to 2500 lives annually in EU-27 when fully deployed, to reduce the severity of injuries, bring significant savings to society in healthcare and reduce human suffering. The pan European eCall concept started in 2002. Since then, more than 120 organisations signed the Memorandum of Understanding for eCall deployment, including 20 EU Member States, and eCall has been identified as one of the priority areas of the ITS Directive.

More information at http://www.ertico.com/heero-triggers-the-final-countdown-for-ecall-deployment/

3) ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and 3GPP (Third Generation of mobile telephony Partnership Project) have standardized the pan-European eCall in-band technology towards interoperability.

About Cinterion

Cinterion, a Gemalto company, is the global leader of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) communication modules. Combining unparalleled M2M engineering expertise and localized worldwide customer support, with a strong portfolio of cutting-edge GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSPA products, Cinterion provides complete M2M solutions encompassing wireless modules and MIMs (Machine Identity Module) through to server platforms and managed services. Cinterion is a reliable partner valued by diverse vertical market customers for its award-winning M2M technology which enables machines, equipment and vehicles to communicate over wireless networks, helping enterprises dramatically cut costs and increase efficiency. Cinterion products are carrier and FTA approved and are deployed in industries including: healthcare, automotive and eToll, metering, remote maintenance and control, payment systems, routers and gateways, security systems, tracking and tracing, environmental monitoring and more. Cinterion is part of the Gemalto group (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security with 2009 annual revenues of €1.65 billion, and over 10,000 employees in 42 countries operating out of 77 offices, with 11 research and development centers.

For more information, please visit: http://www.Cinterion.com.

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2009 annual revenues of €1.65 billion, and over 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 41 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work–anytime, anywhere–has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports and USB tokens for online identity protection. Moreover Gemalto delivers on emerging applications related to the ‘Internet of things’ by supplying wireless modules and machine identification modules (MIM) for machine-to-machine communication. To complete these solutions we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information please visit http://www.gemalto.com.

Contacts

Lydia Aldejohann
Cinterion Wireless Modules GmbH
+49 (89) 21029 9123
lydia.aldejohann@cinterion.com

Ellen Lynch
LPI Communications for CWM
+1 (415) 225 2240
ellen@lpicommunications.com

Gemalto Media Contacts

Peggy Edoire
Europe, Middle East & Africa
+33 4 42 36 45 40
peggy.edoire@gemalto.com

Yvonne Lim
Asia Pacific
+65 6317 3730
Yvonne.lim@gemalto.com

Jessi Marshall
North America
+1 512 257 3902
jessi.marshall@gemalto.com

Ramzi Abdine
Latin America
+55 11 5105 7659
ramzi.abdine@gemalto.com