AirIQ offers its telematics services to private label partners Leading vehicle recovery firm LoJack Corporation announced as a partner.

Business/Aviation Editors

TORONTO, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2000

AirIQ Inc., a wireless application service provider specializing in the telematics industry, today announced a plan to offer its solution to third parties wishing to provide privately labeled telematics services to their customers.

AirIQ will continue to provide services directly to customers under the AirIQ brand, but will use its depth of experience to enable large companies with existing customer channels to offer a fully Web-enabled wireless solution as if it were their own.

Under the new strategy, led by Vice President Alain Laflamme, AirIQ will create and host a dedicated portal for large partners, fully secured using market-leading firewall technology and intrusion detection systems. By privately labeling AirIQ's services, companies wishing to expand their service offerings with a telematics product can avoid the high costs and time required to develop it.

AirIQ recently announced it has signed an agreement with LoJack Corporation, the world leader in stolen vehicle recovery. AirIQ's Web-based fleet management solution will be the application component of LoJack's in-vehicle telematics product for the automobile aftermarket.

"The creation of this new division is an important step in AirIQ's growth strategy," said Donald E. Simmonds, President and CEO of AirIQ. "Our full-service division is doing well in the rental vehicle and lease fleets markets, and is rapidly expanding into the commercial transport, bus and heavy equipment markets. This complementary strategy, in which we will act as application service provider to third parties, will allow us to quickly reach the critical mass required to remain the lowest-cost provider of this kind of service."

Using telematics, or the wireless transmission of information to and from vehicles, AirIQ helps its clients locate and manage their vehicle fleets. Features of the AirIQ service solution include vehicle location upon demand, out of bounds reporting, excessive speed reports and the ability to remotely disable stolen or otherwise suspect vehicles.

The AirIQ service solution has three components: wireless network airtime, an in-vehicle electronics package called AirIQ OnBoard, and AirIQ OnLine. AirIQ OnBoard is a combination of computing intelligence, global positioning (GPS) and a wireless transceiver. AirIQ OnLine is the management information application hosted on AirIQ's servers that provides a Web-based customer interface and access to vehicle information and histories using a powerful, North American street-level map interface.

AirIQ's private label partners can choose from various options to ensure the most suitable offering is made to their customers. For example, the choice of a wireless network provider would have a bearing on the cost, coverage and bandwidth of the services provided.

"Many large corporations are recognizing their need to provide vehicle locating and tracking services to their existing customers," said Laflamme. "By privately labeling our service solutions, these companies can enter the telematics industry without having to redevelop services that already exist."

Telematics is the wireless transmission of location-based information and control messages to and from vehicles. The consumer telematics industry is estimated to reach 17 million consumer subscribers by the end of 2004, according to the Strategis Group Inc. of Washington, D.C.

A b o u t A i r I Q

Based in Pickering, near Toronto, Canada, AirIQ is an application service provider specializing in wireless fleet management for vehicles. Using telematics, or the wireless transmission of location-based information and control messages to and from vehicles, AirIQ helps its clients locate and manage their vehicle fleets. The AirIQ service solution is a marriage of five advanced technologies: Internet, wireless communications, positioning technology (GPS), digitized mapping (GIS) and computing intelligence. AirIQ was formed in 1997 as a partnership among three high-technology leaders: Bell Mobility, Lenbrook Inc. and Veridian Corporation. Visit AirIQ on the Internet at www.airiq.com.