Subject: [NEXTEL-1] UPS to spend $127M on tri-mode wireless driver terminals

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 23:13:17 -0400

UPS to spend $127M on tri-mode wireless driver terminals

By Bob Brewin
APRIL 15, 2003
United Parcel Service
Inc. plans to spend $127
million on global
deployment over the next
five years of a new driver
terminal that features
built-in cellular, wireless
LAN and Bluetooth
short-range wireless
systems.

The driver terminal also
includes Global
Positioning System
(GPS) receivers and a
bar code scanner all
packed into a compact,
rugged Windows CE .Net
powered device with a
color screen
manufactured by Symbol Technologies Inc. in Holtsville, N.Y.

Atlanta-based UPS also spent $22 million to develop its new Deliver Information
Acquisition Device (DIAD) IV that will equip 70,000 drivers worldwide, according
to spokeswoman Donna Barrett.

The new terminal hooks drivers into the UPS worldwide network from a customer's
premises, allowing entry of package tracking data into the network without the
need to walk back to the truck and hook up the terminal to a wide-area wireless
network, which drivers need to do with the current-generation systems, Barrett
said.

The new terminal also confirms deliveries almost instantaneously: Drivers scan
the package bar code; collect the receiver's signature electronically; type in
the last name of the receiver and push a single key to complete the transaction
and distribute the data, UPS said in its announcement.

"This electronic data capture ensures that UPS customers have the most current
package tracking information available to them anytime, anywhere," UPS CIO Ken
Lacy said in a statement.

Dave Salzman, UPS program manager for information services, said the short-range
Bluetooth wireless system in the DIAD IV is designed to communicate with
peripheral devices that the company may add in the future, including printers
and credit card readers.

UPS also plans to use the Bluetooth system, which operates in the same 2.4-GHz
band as 802.11b WLANs built into the DIAD IV, to communicate with customer
computers that use UPS shipping software and also have Bluetooth wireless
connections, Salzman said. He added that one reason UPS chose the .Net version
of the Windows CE operating system from Microsoft Corp. was it supported XML
messaging, which will make it easier for the DIAD IV to communicate with
customer PCs.

The built-in 802.11b WLAN system will be used for in-building communications
with WLAN systems installed in UPS stations and hubs, Salzman said. In October
2000, UPS detailed plans to install WLANs at all 2,000 of its sorting facilities
worldwide (see story).

The DIAD IV, which UPS plans to start deploying nest year, replaces the DIAD III
introduced in 1999 at a cost of $100 million and manufactured by Motorola Inc.
in Schaumburg, Ill. (see story). The DIAD III had a black-and-white screen and
operated over a wide-area packet data network in the U.S. provided by Motient
Corp. in Reston, Va., with a data rate of only 9.6Kbit/sec.

The DIAD IV, Barrett said, will operate over cellular networks based on the
General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) standard that have a data rate of
20Kbit/sec. to 40Kbit/sec. or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 1xrtt (single
carrier -- 1x -- radio transmission technology) networks that have an average
data rate of 40Kbit/sec. to 60Kbit/sec.

UPS started a large-scale test of a GPRS network operated by AT&T Wireless
Services Inc. in Redmond, Wash., with 4,500 DIAD III terminals earlier this year
(see story). Last year, UPS completed an upgrade of 15,000 DIAD IIIs used by its
drivers in Europe to use a GPRS network operated by the T-Mobile division of
Deutsche Telekom AG in Bonn.

Barrett added that UPS has not yet signed a long-term contract with AT&T
Wireless pending the results of the tests. Cingular Wireless in Atlanta as well
as the U.S.-based division of T-Mobile in Bellevue, Wash., also operates
nationwide GPS-based cellular systems. UPS intends to use CDMA networks to
provide coverage in areas not served by GPRS systems, Barrett added. Both
Verizon Wireless in Bedminster, N.J., and Sprint PCS Group in Overland Park,
Kan., operate nationwide CDMA networks.

UPS rival FedEx Corp. in Memphis started a rollout of a similar driver terminal
based on the Pocket PC operating system last fall in a $150 million project
designed to equip 40,000 drivers. The FedEx "PowerPad" operates over the AT&T
Wireless Services GPRS network and also incorporates Bluetooth technology as
well as a built-in 802.11b wireless LAN system. But it doesn't have a built-in
GPS like the new UPS DIAD IV.

Barrett said UPS initially intends to use the GPS technology to aid dispatchers
in Europe, where the company responds to calls for pick-up vs. the U.S., where
the company has scheduled pick-ups on a daily basis at known customer locations.
The DIAD's GPS receiver will transmit vehicle locations back to the dispatch
center over the GPRS network, allowing dispatchers to quickly determine the
vehicle nearest to a call, Barrett said. The DIAD IV has 128MB or more than 20
times the memory in the DIAD III -- a portion of which could be allocated to
store maps for use with the GPS system at some future time, Barrett added.

Ken Pasley, director of wireless system development at FedEx, said that while
his company uses GPS on long-haul trucks, the company had dismissed the idea of
putting it into the PowerPad because of loss of coverage from the GPS satellites
once a driver entered a building.

Pasley also said that FedEx eventually will be able to use cellular
network-based location systems in the U.S., once the cellular carriers have
rolled out the federally mandated service nationwide.

Salzman said that UPS doesn't need to track a driver inside a building, but just
to the driver's last stop location. He added that the cost of adding GPS
capabilities to the DIAD IV was "incremental."

Pasley also disclosed that FedEx is considering using CDMA cellular service in
addition to GPS in the U.S. to improve coverage and is looking for the industry
to develop a chip-based GPRS/CDMA system.

Chris Kozup, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Boston, said UPS and FedEx
continue to lead the way with integration of wireless in vertical, enterprise
markets.

"UPS and FedEx have always been innovators, and they are now pioneering the
integration of multiple wireless technologies" into a single device, Kozup said.
He said UPS needs to stay ahead on the technology curve because many of the
concepts and business applications it pioneered, such as automated package
tracking, have been adopted by rivals, including the U.S. Postal Service

http://www.computerworld.com/mobiletopics/mobile/story/0,10801,80369,00.html?nas=PM-80369

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