Thales Telematics Foresees M'sia As An Important Market For Its Product

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- Thales Telematics Plc (Thales), a company headquartered in France, foresee Malaysia as a potential market for its Intelligent Vehicle Telematics System (IVTS), to be priced at RM2,000 per unit.

Tematics is the combination of telecommunications and computing and automotive telematics is the wireless exchange or delivery of communication, information and other content between auto, occupants and external sources.

By using IVTS, the driver, among other things, gets to enjoy Internet access, e-mail, vehicle theft tracking, route guidance amd emergency rescue services.

Thales' sales and marketing director, Stephen Clark said Thursday that Malaysia was important with regards to the company's expansion programme in Asia Pacific.

"There is a minimum market opportunity (in Malaysia for IVTS). We also believe that Malaysia would easily allow us to reach our target market," he told reporters after an agreement signing ceremony here today.

However, Clark did not reveal the target sales and investment value for the product, which would be available in the market in December as a car accessory.

With regards to its expansion in Malaysia, Thales has teamed up with MIGHT-METEOR Advance Manufacturing Sdn Bhd (MIGHT-METEOR), International Wireless Technologies Sdn Bhd (IWT) in the IVTS project, which encompasses the I.Car products, parts, components and software.

Three agreements were signed, the first was Thales, MIGHT-METEOR and IWT, second - MIGHT-METEOR, IWT, Telekom Malaysia (TM Geomatics) and Celcom Malaysia Bhd and third - between MIGHT-METEOR, IWT and Alcatel Network Systems (M) Bhd.

Chairman of MIGHT-METEOR, Tan Sri Datuk Dr Ahmad Zaharudin Idrus said that this was first step in the collaboration between the parties involved in the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of the products in Malaysia.

He said the fusion of the European and Malaysian technologies in telematics was the main agenda in the strategic collaboration.

On the provision of the telematics services to customers, TM Geomatics and Celcom will join the consortium in rendering their expertise on the telecommunications facilities to complement the state-of-the-art in-vehicle communication and information services, he said.

The telematics technology would be transferred through Thales while MIGHT-METEOR and IWT will develop the applications to further enhance the Intellegent Car (I.Car) products, system and services in Malaysia.

The agreement focuses on the technical synergy of the I.Car project where a collaborative effort is required to ensure the success and outlines the nature of technical collaboration that the signing parties are undertaking.

At the initial stage, the Malaysian automotive industry has been identified as the I.Car's primary market, and gradually, the team aspires to penetrate the Asia Pacific region and the global market, said Clark.

The respective signing parties will each play its specific roles in the course of implementing the telematics applications in this country.

The consortium of MIGHT-METEOR and IWT will spearhead in conjunction with Thales, the implementation of the project, having the know-how and capability, to promote and support the development of the I.Car programme in Malaysia.

The telcos would provide the telecommunications facilities along with Global Positioning System (GPS) from Thales, which includes distributing their contents using the GSM and GPRS cellular networks to provide telematics hub services and back end software application for telemetry, billing and transaction management.

The telecommunications companies would also provide a single point or contact between customers and other services and content providers such as emergency services, police and security services, road-side assistance, traffic information, entertainment, travel guide and other information.

The consortium plans to use Alcatel manufacturing facilities in Pulau Pinang for assembly and manufacturing of the I.Car product.

-- BERNAMA