Iridium Communications Inc. announced an agreement with Komatsu Ltd. of Japan, a leading global manufacturer of heavy equipment for the construction and mining industries, to provide global asset tracking and monitoring for its KOMTRAX system, a system with over 400,000 KOMTRAX-equipped vehicles in the field. This deal extends Iridium’s leadership position in providing global satellite machine-to-machine (M2M) communications (also referred to as the Internet of Things or IoT) within the heavy equipment industry.
This agreement enables Komatsu to integrate its vehicle monitoring system, KOMTRAX, with the Iridium network to further extend its reach into global markets currently not served. The service will provide real-time vehicle location, health, diagnostics and proactive maintenance data from anywhere in the world, even where cellular infrastructure is compromised. This long-term agreement ensures that Komatsu has access to a reliable global network for off-road telematics, and with the help of Iridium’s low-cost, low-power and versatile M2M devices, Komatsu will continue to provide its customers with world leading maintenance services.
“We are confident in Iridium’s ability to further extend our reach now and for many years to come with its current global network, and future next-generation network,” said Ichiro Nakano, executive officer and vice president, development division and vice president, ICT solution division at Komatsu. “A single communication service cannot satisfy our needs. By adding Iridium, we are able to diversify and expand our global network to support construction and mining equipment that is utilized in every possible harsh and remote place on the planet.”
To date, Iridium M2M services are now used by seven of the top 20 heavy equipment OEMs (original equipment manufacturer) in the world. Forecast to be a $181 billion dollar global industry in 2016, heavy equipment is challenged by the current global economy, but is looking to telematics as a way to drive efficiency and value for customers, dealers and resellers. As the adoption and implementation of satellite-enabled telematics and asset tracking solutions continues to grow across multiple industries, the need for global and reliable communications solutions will increase, further establishing Iridium’s foothold as a leader in this space.
“This new contract reinforces our relationship with Komatsu and provides further validation for Iridium’s leadership in core M2M/IoT satellite technologies,” said Tim Last, vice president and general manager, M2M/IoT at Iridium. “As a business partner, Iridium is committed to providing continuity of service for our subscribers who have M2M/IoT devices already in the field, which total over 50% of our base, by designing our new Iridium NEXT constellation to be backwards compatible with all devices currently in use.”
