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

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.