KORE Telematics an M2M wireless services provider announced today that its network played a fundamental role in exposing an organized ring of rental equipment theft.

From the press release:

“In late 2007, perpetrators rented equipment simultaneously from several branches of an equipment rental company in North Carolina, with the intent of moving the equipment out of the country. Fortunately for the rental company, it had outfitted its vehicles-for-rent with a monitoring and tracking system from DPL America, powered by the KORE Telematics machine-to-machine wireless network.

When the firm became suspicious of one of the transactions and tracked the equipment to a location nearly 100 miles from where it was supposed to be, they understood immediately that something more sinister was going on. The company quickly ran locations for every rental from the previous day and tracked another piece of equipment all the way to Texas, where it had been transported through the night to a wrecking yard near the Mexico border.”

Read more here

I received a press release today announcing  a joint marketing agreement between Wavecom and Orbcomm through which the two companies will work together to address the demand for devices that combine both satellite and terrestrial wireless communications.

From the press release:

ORBCOMM’s COO, Marc Eisenberg said, “We are very excited that Wavecom intends to promote dual-mode services that combine ORBCOMM with terrestrial wireless networks. Wavecom’s position as a leading provider of cellular M2M technology is further validation of ORBCOMM’s plans to bring dual-mode services that combine satellite and cellular to the market at prices normally associated with single-mode services.”

“We are already seeing tremendous customer interest in combining cellular and satellite technologies,” said Stefan Lindvall, Wavecom Group Vice President and Head of Americas Region. “We are pleased to partner with a well established satellite M2M leader like ORBCOMM to deliver improved global coverage and enhanced value to the marketplace.”

Long-time M2M product manaufacturer, Connect One™ has announced the immediate availability of two new affordable external devices servers for secure M2M IP connectivity. These new products (Secure iLAN and Secure iWiFi) enable secure IP communications for any device with an RS232 or RS485 port.

From the press release:

“The Secure iLAN and Secure iWiFi allow devices previously requiring on-site technician visits to be remotely monitored and configured over IP networks in a completely secure manner from a home, office or on the road. Secure iLAN and Secure iWiFi include an integrated web browser that enables existing devices to be accessed using a web browser. In addition, existing devices can communicate via e-mail, file transfers and other Internet protocols. Monitoring equipment can therefore use the Secure iLAN to e-mail a control center or technician if a certain threshold is exceeded.

Pricing for Secure iLAN starts at $75, and pricing for Secure iWiFi starts at $85. Both are available now. Customers may visit Connect One’s website for ordering contact and information.”

Seen on Yahoo Business News: Deutsche Telekom’s venture capital arm T-Mobile Venture Fund and private equity investor Granville Baird have announced they plan to acquire Siemens’ Wireless Modules business.

From the Yahoo story:

With more than 100 million customers worldwide, Deutsche Telekom is trying to consolidate its market share with such purchases. “Together with T-Mobile, we plan to make great use of this high growth market to expand our position in the market,” said Norbert Muhrer, president at Siemens Wireless Modules.

Siemens Wireless Modules, earlier part of the Siemens Sensors and Communication business, develops and markets mobile communications modules for the machine-to-machine communications market. The products are used in automatic meter readouts, building monitoring, transport logistics systems, payment systems, remote maintenance, and automotive communication.

Siemens Wireless Modules and T-Mobile said the partnership will allow them to offer customers “one-stop shopping” including integrated data transmission and interfaces to existing applications. “Together we are creating an M2M market player that can offer its customers solutions across the globe from a single source,” said Philipp Humm, managing director at T-Mobile Deutschland.

There’s a good article in Industrial Embedded Systems discussing work by the IEEE’s 6LoWPAN group, which has released a draft standard for a wireless personal-area networking protocol. Networks meeting the 6LoWPAN standard will use IEEE 802.15.4 for the physical layer and the Internet protocol, IPv6.

Red Bend Software announced today that Sierra Wireless has licensed its management solution, vDirect Mobile™, for Sierra Wireless’s USB modems, PC cards, embedded modules and M2M products.

From the press release:

“Device management has become increasingly important to our customers and provides significant benefits in terms of ease of use,” said Evan Jones, Vice President, Engineering for Sierra Wireless. “We selected Red Bend for their proven performance, experience with both mobile and M2M, and standards-based interoperability.”