SiGEM Inc., provider of GPS-based vehicle location tracking systems, and WirelessCar, a global business-to-business provider of integrated telematics services, on April 11 announced their intention to form a strategic alliance to serve the growing world market for telematics products and services. “Our strategy is to partner with the very best telematics suppliers worldwide to create the total solution that customers are seeking,” said Jan Hellaker, president and CEO of WirelessCar. “We chose to pursue a relationship with SiGEM based on the company’s considerable expertise in designing and deploying location-aware devices and application software. They fully understand the complexities of fleet management. We are looking forward to working with them to deliver an increasing level of functionality and customer service to the telematics market.” Telematics, which industry analysts project will grow into an $8 billion global market by 2004 (from $1 billion in 2000), represents the convergence of wireless communications, location technology and the automotive industry. With telematics, drivers, passengers, fleet owners and operators, insurance companies and others will have new and highly productive ways to communicate on an any time, anywhere basis. WirelessCar and SiGEM say they plan to leverage their complementary strengths to present a complete global telematics offering to vehicle manufacturers and fleet owners. "By combining SiGEM’s expertise with WirelessCar’s seamless communication, administration, and billing services, the two companies will offer a total telematics solution that lets customers implement valuable services while reducing management costs and time-to-deployment," a SiGEM statement reads. In addition, SiGEM and WirelessCar will share industry intelligence to mutually enhance product development. “This is an extremely exciting opportunity for SiGEM to contribute to a telematics solution developed by WirelessCar with the backing of some of Europe’s leading wireless and automotive players,” said Herb Woods, president and CEO of SiGEM. “We’re looking forward to working with WirelessCar to reach a large number of potential users worldwide with a very attractive offering. Our partnership with WirelessCar instantly provides an infrastructure for launching telematics services that set new industry standards.” WirelessCar provides vehicle manufacturers, the commercial fleet industry, aftermarket systems suppliers and service providers with a complete array of customizable telematics solutions. The WirelessCar Universal Telematics Network (UTN) is designed to eliminate the difficulties of communicating between conflicting technologies by automatically integrating and standardizing information from different worldwide telematics equipment, network carriers and content/service providers. The company’s telematics platform supports a wide range of programs and services including emergency and roadside assistance, navigation guidance, remote vehicle diagnostics and fleet tracking management. SiGEM’s ePiNG devices offer integrated GPS, wireless communications, and on-board diagnostics combined with an application platform to support custom telematics functionality. In addition, ePiNG FleetMonitor provides a Web-based interface to let fleet managers and service providers remotely access and respond to information received from vehicles. About WirelessCar WirelessCar, a provider of integrated telematics services, focuses on offering connectivity, services and content, and administration and billing to vehicle manufacturers, commercial fleets, and aftermarket system suppliers. WirelessCar, founded by Ericsson, a provider of telecom and data solutions, AB Volvo, a vehicle manufacturer, and Telia, an operator of fixed and wireless networks, is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company’s North America headquarters is located in Irvine, Calif. Additional information is available at www.wirelesscar.com. About SiGEM SiGEM (www.sigem.com) has more than 20 years’ experience in location-based fleet management and an installed base of more than 125,000 units. Based in Ottawa, Canada, with operations in the U.S. and the U.K., SiGEM develops and markets the ePiNG family of hardware, software and services for a variety of wireless location-based applications.