According to a new research report from the analyst firm Berg Insight, the number of machines connected to mobile networks in Europe will grow by 43.7 percent annually to reach 52.0 million by 2011.

At the end of 2006 there were about 8.5 million active cellular and satellite wireless M2M connections in the EU and Western Europe . Energy meters currently constitute the largest vertical market segment in terms of deployed units, followed by motor vehicles, security alarms and POS-terminals. In 2011, motor vehicles are forecasted to have become the largest segment, accounting for more than 60 percent of the total installed base.

“Remote meter reading is the fastest growing application area in Northern Europe, whereas demand for vehicle telematics is particularly strong in the UK and Italy ”, said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight. “In the coming years we expect that the European automobile manufacturers will accelerate the market growth rate by introducing GSM/GPS emergency call devices as a standard safety feature.”

Automatic GPS-aided crash notification is already offered on all vehicles from GM and some other manufacturers on the North American market. The European Commission has proposed that a so called eCall device should be required on all new cars sold in the EU from 2010 at the earliest.

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