Siemens Wireless Modules, after being sold to a group of private investors led by Granville Baird this spring, is now being renamed Cinterion Wireless Modules.
The new name started yesterday for everywhere except the United States, where it starts August 1 because of legal issues, said Peter Fowler, general manager and vice president of the North American region.
Asked to explain the meaning of Cinterion, Fowler said: “It stands for communication, intelligence and strength. It does remind me a little bit of Battlestar Galactica, but I don’t think that is the intended message.”
Among the new investors is wireless carrier T-Mobile International, which owns a 12% stake. “We really like the fact that T-Mobile has joined because they’re a global carrier we can talk to about the business. The difficult part is just making sure we don’t do anything to favor the T-Mobile relationship that ends up alienating our other carrier partners,” such as AT&T, Fowler said. However, T-Mobile does not have a board seat, which limits its influence, he noted.
Currently the Siemens/Cinterion organization sells 7 million to 8 million units per year of wireless machine-to-machine modules, with about 1.5 million in the U.S., Fowler said. As an independent company, it will have an increased focus on vertical markets such as home alarms, ship cargo containers and metering technology, he said.
Cinterion is based in Munich and has more than 400 employees. Development groups are based in Berlin and in Wroclaw, Poland.
