Mar 22, 2011 9:44 AM,

CTIA in brief: Sprint taps Omnilink for new M2M business tracking service

By Kevin Fitchard

Companies enter parameters through a Web interface to set when tracking alerts should be sent

ORLANDO -- Sprint (NYSE:S) is now in the business of guarding bank bags and palates of cigarettes. Not literally of course, but thanks to a new partnership with Omnilink, Sprint will start selling an asset tracking and geo-fencing service to its business and enterprise customers.

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Omnilink has technically been a Sprint partner for years, buying capacity on the operator’s network as the connectivity portion of its growing asset monitoring and location services. But now Sprint and Omnilink are turning their customer-provider relationship into a partnership. Sprint and Omnilink together will market a new asset tracking service designed to give small businesses and enterprises their first taste of M2M through a simple Web interface and tracking device combo that be set up in a matter of minutes.

Omnilink Vice President of Strategy and Business Development Steve Hudson said that the service uses assisted GPS, relying on satellites where available and cellular location where not. Costing about $20 or $30 a month per tracking device, the service is designed as a low-cost and easy way for companies to get started tracking inventory or valuables even if their core business lies elsewhere. Rather than build massive back-end systems that integrate with their inventory systems, a company merely enters parameters through a Web interface determining when tracking alerts should be sent, Hudson said. A customer could set up a geo-fence, sending alerts when a tracking device leaves a warehouse or a store. The system also has easily accessible APIs and a software developers kit, so a customer who wants to layer on more sophistication can integrate the tracking data with its back end systems, Hudson said.

Sprint wasn’t the only company partnering with M2M providers at CTIA. Verizon Wireless (NYSE:VZ, NYSE:VOD) announced a deal with Axeda to support its cloud application development platform (CP: Verizon Wireless and Axeda aim to monetize M2M). VZW also partnered with Sierra Wireless to help market the latter’s AirVantage cloud platform and ILS for its M2M device management system.