Introducing the homeless mobile device

SignalSet may have broken the bond that has long tied a specific mobile device to a specific mobile network. The small machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions provider has launched the industry’s first multi-network telematics solution, which allows a wireless connected device to switch between different operators’ networks in real-time as network conditions and even data pricing policies change.

Traditionally all wireless devices are tied to a “home” network, which handles not only the bulk of the device’s communications needs but also manages the device and customer relationship when it does need to roam onto another network. That home network bond keeps phones tied to a single operator and a single bill while keeping M2M services on a preferred operator’s network in any given country.

Even in the wholesale sector, where mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) have network relationships in place, a device is still tied to a specific network in any given location. The Amazon Kindle either works with Sprint or they work with AT&T, not both. M2M MVNOs like Kore Telematics wholesales capacity from numerous U.S. operators but it keeps individual devices tied to specific networks.

But SignalSet is seeking to sever that home network bond by signing multiple wholesale relationships but not designating a home network. Instead its devices can chose the best network available to them at any given time or location, based on any number of factors ranging from coverage to congestion to cost per byte transmitted, said Peter van der Gracht, CEO of SignalSet.

“There’s an emerging trend toward more creative pricing from mobile operators,” van der Gracht said. New policy management platforms allow operators to price data by demand, offering lower rates at off-peak times and higher rates when the network is most congested. By deploying a real-time platform that allows an M2M solution to negotiate different networks, devices could decide to transmit over whatever network happens to have the best data-pricing rates at the time, van der Gracht said. SignalSet currently has agreements in place with two operators, Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile (NYSE:DT), and is selling M2M solutions that allow devices to switch between the former’s CDMA 1X and EV-DO networks and the latter’s GSM networks on the fly.

Van der Gracht said that SignalSet developed the platform originally for very large industrial equipment manufacturers, who wanted to build wireless connectivity to their products but due to the long lifecycles of those machines—often 10 years or more—didn’t want to remain tied down to a particular operator or radio technology. SignalSet sought to solve that problem by deploying multi-radio-multi-band modules, which would allow verticals to switch between CDMA and GSM operators as contracts, but in the process the company developed the back-end technology that would allow it to manage multiple operator wholesale partnerships simultaneously, van der Gracht said. SignalSet remains focused on its big equipment vendor customer today, but van der Gracht acknowledges that the technology has a huge potential outside of the vertical markets.

For instance Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) has negotiated wholesale agreements with both Clearwire (NASDAQ:CLWR) and emerging long-term evolution (LTE) operator LightSquared. While Best Buy will likely sell the two services separately, offering an LTE modem to some customers and WiMAX to others, it could chose to partner with SignalSet to offer a multi-network solution and embed both WiMAX and LTE technology into its devices. If a customer moved outside of Clearwire’s footprint into LightSquared’s footprint, the telematics platform would simply negotiate the switch between networks without any roaming agreement lying in the middle. But if a customer was within both LTE and WiMAX coverage simultaneously, the platform could select which network offered the fastest connection or best value for the bit at any given moment.

Van der Gracht said the Best Buy example is just hypothetical and stressed that SignalSet isn’t going to sign a contract with a big box retailer next week, but he added that SignalSet has been in early discussions with consumer data device manufacturers exploring such possible scenarios. The key impediment to such business models would be the wireless network operators, but so far operators have offered no resistance, van der Gracht said. “These guys aren’t being dragged kicking and screaming,” he said. “They recognize the value.”

SignalSet has a long way to go before it takes its remote-carrier switching technology to the highest tiers. Last week, it closed its Series A funding round, raising $6 million from four venture capital firms. It recently signed its first major customer contract with an unnamed Fortune 500 company that will develop tracking and telematics services for the trucking industry.