ACAL Technology samples GSMA’s ‘Best low-bandwidth 3G module’

20th January 2010

ES Admin

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ACAL Technology is sampling the GSM/GPRS/EDGE module named as the ‘Best low-bandwidth 3G module’ in the GSM Association (GSMA) Embedded Mobile Module Competition which was announced in November 2009.

Created to encourage the growth of embedded mobile applications, the competition was judged by a panel of nine experts from major mobile operators, including AT&T, KT, O2, TIM and Vodafone. The modules were assessed for their innovative functionality as well as for their potential for cost-effective, large-scale M2M deployments.

The SIM5215 is one of three recently-released SIMCom modules from ACAL Technology, which support a range of data rates and rich peripheral interfaces, enabling them meet different price/performance points in M2M applications. All three SIM5213/4/5 modules support dual-band 2G and tri-band 3G communication with a WCDMA download data rate of 384Kbps and uplink speeds ranging from 384Kpbs to 3.6Mbps. For high-end applications, the previously released SIM5218 module features an uplink rate of 5.7Mbps and a download rate of 7.2Mbps.

ACAL’s M2M specialist, Kevin Price, explained, “M2M is a focus market for airtime providers and a high growth area for electronics companies. These new modules, combined with ACAL’s experience in helping customers to implement high-profile, large-scale M2M projects, will provide significant impetus for the development of advanced 2G and 3G M2M networks.”

All the modules integrate interfaces for a universal SIM (USIM) as well as for USB2.0, audio, UART, I2C, ADC and GPIO. In addition to these common interfaces, the SIM5215 has additional interfaces for a digital camera and a micro-SD card. Its embedded LUA script provides easy data transfer over TCP, UDP, FTP, HTTP, SMTP, POP3 and MM3 protocols. The SIM5214 and SIM5213 add interfaces for a keyboard, RTC, charger, and an optional embedded SIM, whilst the SIM5218 as a digital camera interface and a combined SD/SIM holder.

Applications for the SIM521x family include AMR, gateways, telematics, asset tracking, video security and many other mesh and point-to-point networking applications where secure, remote data transfer is a priority.

The SIM5215 is sampling now from ACAL Technology with specialist support for all aspects of M2M wireless networking including hardware and software for RF, GSM/GPRS or multi-channel communication and airtime contracts.