Economy Tribune; August 2002.

Innovative Transmissions

In this day and age, the demand for easy and efficient communications is higher than ever before. Convenient access to any kind of information utilizing technologies both old and new is the key to success for most businesses. This is precisely the field in which 2wcom GmbH, hailing from Flensburg, Germany is active. The Company specializes in the development and sales of Systems for wireless data transmission, focusing on radio data Systems (RDS).

2wcom was founded by Mr. Werner Drews in 1996. Mr. Drews had been working for the Munich-based company Rohde & Schwarz, and when his employer decided to sell the RDS division, he took this opportunity and bought it. His company employs 13 staff, including 7 engineers and has a current annual turnover of 4 million Euros, with an export share of over 60%.

2wcom's activities are made up of consulting, sales, marketing and the commissioning of turnkey wireless networks for RDS data applications and paging, such as wireless fleet management, real-time traffic information (RDS-TMC), wireless and remote control of almost every piece of equipment imaginable. RDS is distributed via FM broadcasting transmitter networks. These networks have been in existence around the world for years, making data transmission via RDS easy to implement and very cost-effective. 2wcom has been developing innovative solutions for the transmission of supplementary data in the areas of Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), Astra Digital Radio Supplementary Data (ADR), Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM) and DARC/Swift Data Radio Channel. The Company also specializes in the field of FM sub-carrier technologies such as RDS encoders and decoders.

Originally designed for terrestrial transmission via VHF FM broadcasting, the RDS Systems are being utilized to carry supplementary data in the world of digital media. Apart from the actual program content:, information can also be delivered to the end user at much higher transfer and compression rates. To meet the ever-increasing demand for information, new' protocols and standards are being created for digital data transmission via RDS. 2wcom is at the forefront of the development in RDS technology.

"Our customers are service providers for a great variety of supplementary' data such as paging systems, global positioning systems, weather data, financial data, advertising, warning systems, as well as public and private broadcasting companie", explains CEO Werner Drews. 2wcom's products are used by many national broadcasting corporations in Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Austria and Germany. Terion, a US fleet management service provider, has installed l000 special 2wcom RDS encoders/decoders in the United States. 2wcom is also a solution provider for Deutsche Telekom AG, and is the service centre for many German radio stations. Recently, the company has been involved in a pilot project commissioned by the Swedish government. Fifteen thousand warning data receivers will be delivered to Sweden by the end of 2002. They will be installed in households situated in the vicinity of Swedish nuclear power plants. These EWR's (Emergency Warning Receivers) are essentially radio alarm clocks with an inbuilt warning system. The reason for implementing this EW-system is the ability to warn people in large areas in case of a failure in operation of nuclear power plants. It continues to work during a power loss for at least 48 hours. Since the commencement of this project, there has been a lot of interest for these devices from a host of different industries.

"We cater for a niche market on a worldwide scale, with a special focus on Europe and the USA", says CEO Werner Drews. There is very little in the way of direct competition for 2wcom. In Germany, in fact, the Company is the only supplier of such RDS Systems, 2wcom is also one of the leading European companies for updating older RDS installations. "Part of our success is close customer relationships, supported by providing service, support, and quality", explains Mr. Drews. "We continuously push for the ongoing development of our products, especially in the emergency warning system market. On top of that, we have a number of new, highly innovative projects lined up that will utilize existing technology in new ways". 2wcom is one of the main driving forces behind the development of a Pay-TMC (Traffic Message Channel) system for Deutsche Telekom. This system will gather up-to-date traffic information and transmit this via RDS to a car navigation system, allowing the driver to circumnavigate in a congested traffic zone. The project is still in its initial testing phase, but is predicted to be launched very soon.

While RDS may be a rather old technology, it has been around for over 15 years, it has never been exploited to its full potential. 2wcom is one of the companies that realized that there is still a lot of mileage in RDS, especially in the information technology age of the 21st century.