Siyata Mobile buys ClearRF to enhance reliability of IoT systems with amplifiers

Siyata Mobile announced that it will pay $700,000 in cash and stock to acquire ClearRF, which holds a patent that is designed to improve the reliability of Internet of Things (IoT) or machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions by ensuring that a power outage to a cellular amplifier does not cause the broader system to fail.

Glenn Kennedy, Siyata Mobile’s vice president of sales, said company officials are “excited” about the purchase of ClearRF, which is expected to close by the end of the month.

“It’s a company that we’re acquiring because we’re involved in the cellular-booster business with our line of cellular boosters,” Kennedy said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications. “This is technology that we believe will help us gain more market share. We believe it will fit in nicely with what we’re already doing, and it should open us up to some new market opportunities.

“Especially on the IoT and M2M side, we believe that this is will be a really strong addition to our portfolio.”

In a press release issued yesterday, Siyata Mobile described the ClearRF purchase as a “strategic acquisition,” noting the fact that ClearRF devices are manufactured in the United States by Servatron, which is an ITAR-registered facility and is AS9100D certified.

“Siyata will work with Servatron to develop next-generation cellular amplifiers for military, government and first responders that require ‘Made in America’ products,” according to the press release.

Siyata Mobile’s press release also highlighted ClearRF’s patented RF Passive Bypass technology that is designed to prevent power issues with the cellular amplifier from completely undermining the entire system.

Tom Vietri, ClearRF’s vice president of sales, said the RF Passive Bypass solution was developed because many customers were reluctant to use cellular amplifiers in their systems, because they could not trust their reliability.

“To quote one of our customer before we had the Passive Bypass: ‘We don’t use amplifiers, because they immediately become the weak link in the chain,’” Vietri said during an interview with IWCE’s Urgent Communications.

Vietri explained the RF Passive Bypass capability as a physical hardware relay that opens the opens the circuit and allows a non-amplified version of signals to be transmitted to and from the IoT device when the cellular amplifier is not receiving power.

“Basically, the way these works is that you get signals received from the cellular tower on the ClearRF antenna,” Vietri said. “It passes through the amplifier to the modem, and then the modem sends the signal out through the amplifier—where its gained, or increased in power—and goes out to the antenna and back to the cell tower.

“In amplifiers that don’t have the Passive Bypass, if that amplifier loses power or faults, it cuts off the signal and the modem—this assumes that the modem still has power. With the Passive Bypass, if that kind of loss of power or fault is detected, it opens a circuit that will allow the cellular signal to pass from the antenna to the modem through the amplifier, even though it doesn’t have power or it’s faulted.”

Another ClearRF patent cited is the company’s Auto Gain & Oscillation Control, which detects the strength the incoming signal and “self-adjusts output power to ensure maximum signal strength,” the press release states. This feature is important for telematics applications for moving vehicles, because the amplifier will be in motion, according to the press release.