Info takes new path to call centers

Recorded phone calls saying "you saved my baby!" have become the advertising standard for telematics service providers such as OnStar.

But it's the unheard part of the call that lets operators find the right car to unlock or the right vehicle to receive aid.

In the past, much of that information took two separate paths, one a voice phone call from the driver and the other a special kind of text message with codes linked to the vehicle. Operators at telematics call centers had to match up the two feeds to deliver services to the vehicle.

Increasingly, the emergency now is flying across voice channels in the cellular phone that makes telematics service possible, said David Jumpa, vice president of global business development for Airbiquity Inc.

The Seattle company has a contract to provide software modems for BMW vehicles in North America. It provides the same kind of modem for millions of OnStar subscribers.

BMW on board

BMW telematics executive Francis Dance says the modems will give next-generation BMW Assist subscribers more flexibility in sending data-heavy calls to telematics operators.

Dance would not specify the vehicles on which the modem would be used, saying only that it would be in a "reasonable time horizon," before 2011.

The modem will be installed in electronics provided by Continental Automotive Systems, which supplies the telematics hardware used by BMW.

Airbiquity also is negotiating with up to four more automakers to include the modem as a standard component in telematics-equipped vehicles in North America.

Modems are devices that transform data for sending within telephone voice bandwidth. Airbiquity sells software that creates a modem function within existing in-car hardware. Such a modem is licensed at a cost of $3 to $5 per vehicle, according to Jumpa, who would not be more specific.

Other nonemergency data may also take the voice channel to help carmakers mine data for customer relationship management, dealership service scheduling and fleet diagnostics, Jumpa said.

Typically, such information has flowed over a separate nonvoice data channel like a telephone text message. Because voice calls and the other data messages arrive separately, call centers must synchronize the data by matching the phone ID, which can take time and leave the caller on hold.

Easier, quicker

Airbiquity's modem is faster and more efficient than the older systems, Dance says.

"We're putting another trick in our bag," he says.

Jumpa says the ability to send data directly over the voice channel gives the telematics operator immediate vehicle data.

"It's a better user experience. It reduces the amount of time the customer is actually waiting for the operator to come on the phone," he says.

For data-hungry automakers, the change brings a fairly rapid return on investment over paying for separate data calls, he added.

"By us being able to reduce that, by almost 30 to 40 percent, they save that amount of time, number of minutes, across a four-year contract they may have," Jumpa says.

Egil Juliussen, co-founder of Telematics Research Group, said the move away from separate data messages is necessary as telematics data grow more complex.

"You've got to send multiple messages to send the data, and the more you send, the more complex it gets," he says.

Modem-based data transmission is a next natural step, he says. "To me, this is the natural improvement that tends to happen over time."

You may e-mail Tim Moran at [email protected]