Jasper waves low cost data carrot

BORING NICHE markets have an annoying habit of generating big bucks. Which is why M2M (machine-to-machine) specialist, Jasper Wireless, is still doing well. Particularly now it has teamed up with France's Coyote Systems.

Coyote is a French company which has targeted drivers whose professional livelihood depends on being aware where 'safety cameras' are located. It has recently set up offices in Maidstone and the Czech Republic.

Coyote sells a dedicated device that combines a GPS receiver with a cellular data connexion. The idea is simple – as you drive along, Coyote downloads its database of camera locations in real-time.

The beauty is that Coyote's camera location database is kept up-to-date by its own customers. Should they drive passed a camera which is missing from the database and it generates no warning, at a touch of a button the driver can upload its location to Coyote.

All of this would prove extremely expensive if, for example, as a trans-Continental trucker you decide to take out a regular mobile network subscription that will handle the necessary data feeds while 'roaming' abroad.

That's where Jasper kicks in because it can supply SIM cards that work throughout Europe and the Americas where the user is charged at a very low rate for using 2.5G (GPRS) data connexions.

Currently, Jasper is geared up to sell its remotely configurable SIM cards to major corporations – not the general public. But Jasper is modifying its distribution model to include network operators themselves.

It also won't be so a great leap to sell its SIM cards through a major vendor of PNDs (Personal Navigation Devices) – such as Halfords in the UK.

Besides safety camera detectors, Jasper is ideally suited to 'Granny-monitors'. Whilst Jasper might paint its interest here as aiding remote medical diagnostics/monitoring, the technology can easily be applied to safeguarding elderly relatives.

Companies like Activ4life provide remote health monitoring devices which can detect regular medical stuff such as pulse rate and blood pressure. But they can also sense motion – or, rather, lack of motion.

Putting a Jasper SIM card inside such devices makes them for more economically viable than a regular SIM bought through High Street outlets.

The mobile operators aren't idiots and will be watching this niche closely. Meanwhile Dutch mobile operator, KPN, has taken a 'if-you-cant-beat-em-join-em' approach and is now able to sell Jasper's service to its own clientele.

M2M might be yawn-inducing, but it offers operators a revenue stream that they'd otherwise lack. So expect more thinly-veiled M2M applications to be announced over the next few months. µ