Diverse examples of M2M applications

Waleli offers a number of systems that support the industry's predicted, rapid growth in M2M (machine-to-machine) communications. According to Gartner, M2M communications will grow to around EUR914million by 2008, with applications in the fields of transport and logistics, remote control systems, healthcare and security technology.

Siete Hamminga, CEO and founder of Waleli, comments: "M2M has the potential to become a mega trend and the market is expected to be worth over EUR220billion in 2010, compared to the current EUR20billion [source: IDATE, Mobile 2006]. M2M has been around for years and it is appearing more and more in our daily lives. Existing examples include underground rubbish containers in cities that automatically call when they are full; software in parking meters is remotely updated; and stolen work equipment can be traced via satellite."

Waleli's partnership with a leading cleaning equipment and product company is helping the manufacturer to remotely manage the servicing of industrial-size floor cleaning machines, such as those used in airports. Instead of having to send an engineer to service the machine, it can be done remotely over the air. The remote monitoring and management of the machines also provides valuable information about how the machines are being used.

Another example of Waleli's growing recognition in the M2M arena is through its partnership with Dutch company Techno Trend Milieutechniek. Waleli is helping the company to remotely monitor its bottle collecting machines that are increasingly being sited in supermarkets. The units encourage consumers to recycle by offering refunds against bottles that are deposited in the machines.

The remote monitoring capability will alert Techno Trend Milieutechniek if one of its machines malfunctions and, in many cases, fix the problem before anyone is aware of it. In addition, instead of having to send an engineer to service the machine, it can be done remotely.