OREANDA-NEWS. October 19, 2012. Cows can text, thanks to Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M). Using the Vel'Phone® and HeatPhone® solutions supplied by French monitoring solutions experts MEDRIA Technologies, farmers are notified automatically when calving begins or when a cow is on heat and ready for insemination. Deutsche Telekom and MEDRIA have formed a partnership and agreed to cooperate in equipping 5,000 farms around Europe with the application and with Telekom SIM cards.

“M2M solutions deliver major benefits in nearly all industries,” says Jьrgen Hase, head of Deutsche Telekom’s M2M Competence Center. “That is why we are banking on innovative partners like MEDRIA Technologies, who know the specific demand and use cases in their industry. Together with strong partners, we develop and provide end-to-end M2M applications to best serve customer demand.”

For MEDRIA, Deutsche Telekom’s excellent network quality was the deciding factor. “For us, it ensures that important information is relayed securely and is highly available,” says Emmanuel Mounier, MEDRIA’s Managing Director. “Another advantage is Deutsche Telekom's marketing support, including the use of the M2M Marketplace, where the products are now available.”

The Telekom SIM Cards are housed in M2M data collection devices in the cow’s stable or the field. Special sensors measure the cow’s vital data and relay it to the data collection device. The device then notifies the farmer immediately by sending a text message. M2M communication technology means that the farmer no longer needs to spend long nights in the stable. The M2M solution ensures that he can intervene promptly when a cow is about to calve and can make optimal use of the short time when a cow is on heat.

The result is a higher reproduction rate for the herd, while avoiding emergencies means less stress and more profit for the farmer. Data readings are not just available as texts on the farmer’s cell phone. Every farmer can follow his cows’ vital data on the MEDRIA's Daily Web Services® Internet platform thanks to the M2M GPRS data transmission link between the data collection device and MEDRIA's datacenter.

If the Telekom network is not available, the SIM card switches automatically to the best available network at the location and thereby ensures constant availability even in remote areas.