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Suna's traffic messaging service now in Sydney and Brisbane

By Derek Fung on 13 August 2008

Suna, today, launched its traffic messaging service for Sydney and Brisbane motorists, which has been available to Melbournians since late 2007.

A GPS-equipped Ford Falcon warns of a traffic incident ahead

GPS devices equipped with a TMC (Traffic Message Channel) receiver and a Suna subscription can either inform the user of any delays on their route or automatically route around any significant traffic.

Some products — usually higher-end models — from Mio, TomTom, Navman, Garmin, Pioneer and Navway come with a TMC receiver built-in and a Suna subscription. While lower-end models from those brands often have the receiver/subscription combo as an optional extra. Unlike some markets overseas, most notably the States, all Suna subscriptions are for the lifetime of the product.

The first car in Australia to work with traffic messaging in Australia will be Ford's Falcon. Sedan and ute models sold after 1 August and equipped with satellite navigation come pre-subscribed to Suna's service. According to company representatives upgrading and subscribing sat nav-equipped FG Falcons sold before 1 August is a fairly simple task for most dealers. Ford also claims that it is the first car maker in the country to offer the latest iteration, version 15, of the Whereis Australian maps.

Suna's service broadcasts digital, encrypted TMC (Traffic Message Channel) data containing traffic information, such as incidents and delays, as well as major events and other factors which may be of interest to motorists. These messages are piggybacked onto an existing FM radio station's signal — Mix 106.5 in Sydney and Gold FM in Melbourne — and received by GPS devices equipped with a TMC receiver and Suna subscription.

Traffic information is collated by Suna at the company's Melbourne headquarters before being fed out across its TMC networks in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Sources include roadside assistance providers, emergency management services, road work registries, special event organisers and tow truck dispatch services. However, the major component in Suna's traffic information jigsaw are the state road authorities, like the RTA in NSW and VicRoads in Victoria. They not only provide Suna with access to their traffic centres, but with live data from the sensor pads built into many roads which regulate traffic light timing. This data is then fed into Suna's traffic modelling software.

Traffic services have been widely available in Europe and America for several years now. Suna, however, claims that services overseas focus mainly on inter-city freeways and highways, whereas its service focuses more deeply on arterial roads. This, the company says, stems from the "highly urbanised" nature of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. CNET.com.au understands that Suna plans to extend TMC services to Perth, Adelaide and Canberra sometime in 2009.

Topics: suna, traffic message channel, tmc, traffic, ford, falcon, mio, navman, tomtom, garmin, pioneer, sydney

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Comments (8)

  • Danzeeba commented on 20/11/2008 16:34 Report abuse

    Further to the previous question from gdunning. I have just moved to Sydeny from Melbourne where Suna operating and there is NO information?? Have spoken to Mio, they say maps not available until December, can someone please clarify whether the service is available here??

  • Serg commented on 19/11/2008 23:02 Report abuse

    Just purchased a Mio 370 with Navteq mapping and the TMC works great. Picks up the 104.3 station in Mel strong and receives tons of messages. Well worth the money. The Navteq mapping is way more accurate the the Sensis mapping so im sure we will see more brand make the switch.

  • Borce commented on 20/10/2008 14:48 Report abuse

    Hey guys, for your audi's or mio's or garmins; well they all pretty much have sensis map software and unfort, most prob have r14 software which is not the most up to date map data and software avaliable. The R15 sensis map data may or may not have been made avaliable for your gps device. On another note, navteq maps are starting to look very complete and much more accurate and informative, especially in more remote area's. Navteq receive their map data updates from councils, and are linked with the state, territory and australian governments. For more accurate map data, i would sugguest the 08/09 navteq maps which Navman s series platinum and also laser navig8r PND's come with. And yes, the new navteq map data software does support TMC.

  • mm commented on 27/08/2008 14:47 Report abuse

    gbk, I also have an RNS in my Audi however I believe they will never be able to decipher the Suna encryted signal unless there's an update to the soft/firmware. I have asked Audi whether this would ever become available for their RNS E and D units and low and behold they never reply.

  • Don Hawkins commented on 24/08/2008 15:00 Report abuse

    Hi we have a garmin streetpilot c510 will the suna service work with it if so how or where can it be purchase. regards Don

  • danwarne commented on 18/08/2008 20:01 Report abuse

    Gdunning: you'll need to update to the latest map for your Mio. The service is active and being broadcast but unfortunately only works on maps that have traffic congestion stuff built in.

  • gdunning commented on 18/08/2008 08:08 Report abuse

    I have a Mio C720t with activated TMC Subscription. It sees the Sydney TMC Channel (106.5) but no events are being received. Is this Service actually active for Sydney?

  • gbk commented on 14/08/2008 10:50 Report abuse

    Stupid question... I have a 2008 build Audi A4 B7 - the Nav is an RNS-E which seems to be TMC capable. Does the Suna service work with my Nav? If not, any news of if / when it will work?

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