The CTT Story

Dissatisfied with the result, Mike embarked on a mission to develop the technology himself. He needed help, but who or what company could help him develop this ground breaking technology?

After reading the May 2006 article titled "Build-it-yourself cell phones", Mike reached out to Casey Halverson, a Seattle area inventor of mobile devices, that September via email. 

Intrigued with the project, with zero experience in the field of ornithology, Casey agreed to help develop the technology. Mike and Casey got to work over the next year to bring the first prototypes to life. In August of 2007, Mike, Casey and fellow biologist Dr. Todd Katzner founded Cellular Tracking Technologies.

After many prototypes and software updates, the tracking device went from crude prototype to a final design.

In early November 2007, the first GPS + GSM wildlife tracking device was deployed, collection position information every 30 seconds from a Golden Eagle, then transmitted over the cellular network. Amazing visuals of ridge line flights and thermals, never for seen, created impressive views within Google Earth. Now, with the availability of Ayvri, you can fly along with the Golden Eagle we tracked in 2007.

In 2009, CTT moved from Mike's kitchen table to its first office in Donegal, PA, much to Mike's Wife's celebration. Mike finally took the plunge and became CTT's first employee.

CTT would later move to Somerset, PA in 2011, where it would stay for the next 4 years.

Visualization of the First GSM+GPS Transmitter

In 2015, CTT relocated to Cape May, New Jersey, one of the top birding locations in the world. CTT brought its 6 employees with it. in 2016, Casey finally quit his day job and became the company's full time Chief Operating Officer.

In 2017, CTT launched the LifeTag, based on groundbreaking batteryless technology. This new radio tag can last the life of the bird, a first for the industry. CTT, yet again, revolutionized wildlife telemetry.

CTT further ventured into radio tags over the next several years, including nodes, base stations, portable locators and both battery and solar-rechargable battery tags.

In 2018, it was apparent that CTT was running out of space, with 12 employees squeezed into it's 1000sqft building. In collaboration with county officials, a Tech Village was envisioned for CTT's new home at Cape May Airport. Ground was broke in 2019, with completion in 2020. In 2021, running out of space yet again, occupied 2 additional units, for a total of almost 20,000 sqft.

Today, CTT offers a wide variety of products, from LTE cellular to Argos and Iridium satellite and a full line of radio tags for animals of all sizes. Our tags are deployed worldwide, and connect on every carrier. CTT continues to innovate the wildlife telemetry space and has many new exciting technologies just around the corner.