AT&T, IBM sniffing at Lockheed IMS

AT&T and IBM are both examining Lockheed’s IMS unit (that does its toll system work). Last December the parent company based in Bethesda MD told IMS management to spin the unit off, or manage its sale, preferably by a Fortune 50 company. No offers have been made so far, we’re told but the two big companies are seriously interested.

Déjà vu, as the cliché has it. Both have been there before. AT&T developed a whole electronic toll system around 1991-92 and the Transp Corridors Agency deployed a few hundred AT&T transponders when its first toll road, the Foothill opened mid-decade. They included a smart-card interface. Motorists didn’t like them, and the state was introducing its Title 21 standard around the Texas Instrument design, so AT&T got out.

IBM’s involvement in tolling was substantial back in the 1960s. Big Blue completely redid the toll systems of the Pennsylvania and Ohio turnpikes, even down to signage, toll terminals, patron displays, the training manuals and organization charts. IMB are said to have introduced the idea of calling tolls ‘fares.’ They introduced the weigh-in-motion systems for vehicle classification that are used to this day, and new tickets for trip tolling. When they got out of the business Syntonic was well placed to fill the gap IBM left behind.