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MET Laboratories and EPCglobal Inc. Partner to Provide Hardware Certification Testing Program
ADDED: 9/29/2004 10:07:00 AM
LAWRENCEVILLE, New Jersey — September 29, 2004 EPCglobal Inc™, a joint venture of EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, Inc. ® (UCC®), today announced that they partnered with MET Laboratories, Inc. to develop and manage the EPCglobal Hardware Certification program. Global Agreement will ensure availability and interoperability of Electronic Product Code solutions for the end-user community.
Under the agreement, MET Laboratories will provide extensive Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) testing and consulting services for manufacturers and consumers of RFID products and systems, will serve as the testing provider for the EPCglobal Hardware Certification program. MET Laboratories will provide testing for the following: Hardware Interoperability, Radio Frequency, and Protocol. MET Laboratories recently provided testing for EPCglobal solution providers who participated in the Hardware Interoperability Phase I test. During this test, solution providers evaluated the interoperability of their Generation 1 (Class 0 and 1) RFID reader and tag configurations with those provided by other manufacturers.
MET's technology partner, CETECOM Spain, will develop the EPCglobal Hardware Certification program’s RFID conformance test system. CETECOM Spain has developed test systems for other wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and GSM/GPRS. Formal conformance testing will begin on Generation 2 hardware upon the completion of Generation 2 standards expected later this year. Generation 2 standards are standards that will provide one foundational protocol upon which Class 1 and other communication tag classes (i.e. Class 2 and Class 3) will be based.
The primary goal of the EPCglobal Hardware Certification program is to build a worldwide, comprehensive certification process for various EPCglobal Network™ components to ensure availability and interoperability of Electronic Product Code™ (EPC) solutions for the end user community. The EPCglobal Network combines RFID technology, the Internet, and the EPC to enable accurate, cost-efficient visibility of information in the supply chain. Since EPCglobal Inc’s inception in 2003, there has been strong support for EPC technology, with leading companies and industries committed to implementing this technology in their supply chains.
"The testing services that MET will provide for EPCglobal are natural extensions of MET's experience in providing compliance testing for RFID, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies. We look forward to working with EPCglobal and its solution partners in this program,” said President of MET Laboratories Rob Frier.
“EPCglobal Inc’s strategic partnership with MET Laboratories is a win-win for all involved,” said EPCglobal Inc President Chris Adcock. “By joining forces, EPCglobal Inc and MET Labs will deliver a hardware certification program that serves as the focal point for technology providers and end-users to ensure compliance with EPCglobal standards. The availability of standardized, tested equipment in the marketplace is important to companies around the globe as it provides reliable, low-cost solutions.”
For complete hardware interoperability test results and a list of participating solution providers, visit www.EPCglobalinc.org/interoperability. For additional information about EPCglobal or to download an EPCglobal Hardware Certification position paper, visit
About EPCglobal Inc
EPCglobal Inc, a joint venture between EAN International and the Uniform Code Council, Inc.®, is a not-for-profit organization entrusted
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