The Phillips Group Phillips Events Tarifica Defense Daily Network Visit the Snapshot Archive. A new study from UBS Warburg says that satellite communications will play an increasingly important role in telematics services. Satellites will be the most reliable way to provide in-car safety and security services with wide coverage, says Saul Rubin, a Warburg analyst. Real-time diagnostics may best be done by satellite, as well. The problem is that such services are currently in flux or not yet up.
Cellular communications tend to fade as distance from cell sites increases.
And, in up to 30 percent of accidents, vehicles lose power within 4 seconds of impact, Rubin says. Volvo chose Orbcomm satellite communications for its North American safety and security telematics service, Rubin says. But they've held off on rolling the program out, based on Orbcomm's situation. Telematics needs terrestrial and satellite communications. Aggregators will distribute services based on latency sensitivity, cost and available data pipes.