Telstra Takes On Two RFID Trials

Telstra recently teamed up with Intel, BEA Systems and Cisco Systems to market managed RFID services bundling all four companies' offerings, as well as those of some unnamed partners. Telstra's role consists of hosting a number of applications designed to collect and share data through RFID. The telecom company says it expects to announce its first trial customer in Australia before the end of this year.

In another of its pilots, set to start in a few weeks and expected to last three to six months, Telstra will attach passive RFID tags to the 20 most expensive items in each of 10 service vans in Queensland. The goal of the trial is to determine how tagging might help improve operations by identifying and more securely tracking some of the tools required by customer-service engineers.

So far, Telstra says it has yet to identify the type of RFID hardware it will use. "We carried out initial tests with EPC Gen 1 tags, but the technology didn't behave well enough inside the vans, where there is a lot of metal and electrical equipment," says Loretto. "Now, Gen 2 is performing much better, but Ipico's iPX technology is also a possibility for the trial."

For the duration of the project, one supervisor in the service center's depot will be equipped with a single mobile RFID interrogator. The supervisor will use the reader to check the inventory of tools inside each van.

In addition to using the RFID system to determine whether specific tools are aboard its vehicles, Telstra expects the technology to help better manage tool maintenance. The unique ID number on each tag will be linked to the company's asset-management system, allowing supervisors to be notified if any tagged items require maintenance.