Orbcomm, which claims to operate the only commercial satellite network dedicated to M2M, is to acquire South African wireless communications company Skygistics, and its Australian subsidiary.
Skygistics provides satellite and GSM communications terminals for M2M applications. Its Australian business appears to operate under the name Startrack Communictions, a Perth based company whose website is devoted to information about Skygistics but the relationship is not spelled out.
And, curiously, there is a link on the home page to “Startrack Australia” which brings up the URL http://www.skygistics-australia.com.au. That URL, however is unregistered. A call to the company’s phone number went to voicemail.
According to the Startrack Communications website, the company’s product offering “can monitor virtually anything, making it a versatile choice for any kind of work that benefits from GPS technology and/or relies on remotely retrieved data analysis.”
It says “The system is easily adapted to a variety of tasks and can send wireless SMS text message updates and alerts directly to the user’s cell phone. Skygistics’ monitoring system can be used with a virtually endless list of applications. Anything that can be measured can be used with Skygistics systems.”
Orbcomm said the acquisition would add distribution for its products in some of the fastest growing IoT markets, including South Africa and 22 other African nations. “The acquisition of Skygistics supports Orbcomm’s long-term strategy of becoming a leading global, full-service provider in the Internet of Things,” said Orbcomm CEO Marc Eisenberg. “Adding incremental products and services to Skygistics’ infrastructure will build a stronger presence on the African continent, which is an important growing market.”
Orbcomm claims more than 1.5 million subscribers and a diverse customer base including premier OEMs such as Caterpillar, Doosan Infracore America, Hitachi Construction Machinery Co, John Deere, Komatsu and Volvo Construction Equipment, as well as end-to-end solutions customers such as C&S Wholesale, Canadian National Railways, CR England, Hub Group, KLLM Transport Services, Marten Transport, Swift Transportation, Target, Tropicana, Tyson Foods, Walmart and Werner Enterprises.
New telematics offering
Orbcomm has also announced a new heavy equipment telematics solution, which, it says includes its dual-mode PT 7000 device and the FleetEdge web application for monitoring and control of equipment used in the construction, mining, rail and utility industries “By utilising Orbcomm’s comprehensive solution, customers gain complete visibility of their heavy equipment fleet and are able to manage their operations more efficiently with access to near-real-time asset data and analytics,” the company said.
