Aeris to Power Hyundai's Blue Link

South Korean manufacturer Hyundai is getting closer and closer to releasing perhaps the first true worthy opponent to GM's OnStar. Called Blue Link, the telematics service has been introduced last week, with the car maker now announcing it has selected Aeris as its cellular connectivity supplier.

Called AirFrame, the system which will allow Blue Link to gain access into a cellular infrastructure and offering Blue Link the capability to use the entire coverage footprint of nearly all of the CDMA carriers in North America.

"With the introduction of Blue Link, Hyundai leads the automotive market in the U.S.," said Marc Jones, chairman and CEO of Aeris. "We are very excited to work with Hyundai to optimize Blue Link's performance and drive down costs, delivering the most value to the marketplace for an embedded telematics solution.”

“We are proud to partner with Hyundai as they bring the most extensive portfolio of telematics applications in the industry to their customers."

Blue Link will offer Hyundai owners pretty much the same features as the ones provided by OnStar (perhaps Blue Link had some contribution to OnStar's decision to offer its services on cars not manufactured by GM).

These features include remote control, automated diagnostic, recall advisor, stolen vehicle recovery, vehicle immobilization, gas station locations, gas prices and even restaurant ratings.

Hyundai Blue Link will be available soon on all models produced by Hyundai. The first cars to get the system will be the Sonata and the Veloster 3-door coupe, which will be launched later this year.