DataRemote Launches MCP to Bring AI Device Management to POTS IN A BOX® Fleets

DataRemote, Inc. announced on October 7, 2026, the launch of the DataRemote MCP, an AI-enabled Model Context Protocol server for Ara, DataRemote’s device management platform. According to the announcement, Ara manages more than half a million deployed devices across the U.S. The MCP lets the AI assistant a customer already uses look up, diagnose and — when the customer allows it — manage the devices on their account in plain language, with the aim of faster data retrieval, decision-making and troubleshooting.

“Our customers already have a trusted AI assistant as part of their daily workflow. We built our MCP so that their assistant can now answer the questions they used to call us for: which unit is offline, why, and what to do about it.”

— Briam Rodriguez, Senior Vice President of Engineering, DataRemote

What changed

• Before: customers managed their DataRemote devices through the Ara interface or Ara’s developer API. Answering a fleet question meant navigating Ara, building an integration, or contacting DataRemote support.
• After: customers can connect an AI assistant that supports the Model Context Protocol to their DataRemote account and ask about their devices in plain language. The connection is read-only by default; once a customer switches changes on, the assistant can also change settings, restore configurations and send device commands.

DataRemote describes the MCP as the foundation for future AI-powered features focused on streamlining connectivity and protecting customer data.

How it works

A question typed into the assistant passes to the DataRemote MCP, which runs on the customer’s own computer and turns it into requests to DataRemote’s API in Ara. Ara reaches the device, and the answer comes back to the assistant. The MCP never connects to a device directly, and it acts only with the permissions of the customer’s own DataRemote account.

“When our customers make investments in large-scale infrastructure upgrades, they want the confidence they can be managed and supported into the future. By adding new AI capabilities, we are giving them a powerful set of tools to do just that.”

— Timor Brik, Chief Operating Officer, DataRemote

Availability and requirements

• Availability: announced October 7, 2026, and offered to DataRemote customers through DataRemote sales or a Tier 3 support representative.
• Where it runs: on the customer’s own computer, with Python 3.10 or later.
• AI assistants: any assistant or client that supports the Model Context Protocol and can connect to a server running on the user’s computer. The announcement names Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Cursor and VS Code among the assistants that speak MCP.
• Account: the customer’s existing DataRemote sign-in. Credentials can be kept in a password manager such as 1Password so the password is never written to disk, and sign-in is refused over an unencrypted connection.
• Source code: available to existing customers and partners to read, run and adapt. Subject to their agreement with DataRemote, partners may run it on their own systems to manage devices on accounts they are authorized to access, including for their own customers; the MCP itself may not be sold, bundled into a paid product, or offered as a hosted service.

Supported models

The DataRemote MCP supports the 90X1, 90X2, 90X5, VAB-1, CDS-9010 and CDS-9090, plus the CDS-9070 and DRI-9080. Not every model reports every reading; a value a device does not send is reported as unknown, never as zero.

What customers can do with it

Capability	Changes off (default)	Changes on
Check a device: model, firmware, online state, last contact, uptime, live communication test	Yes	Yes
Health and telemetry: CPU, memory, load, power and battery, LTE signal quality (RSRP, RSRQ, SINR), SIM state, interface errors, FXS registration	Yes	Yes
Troubleshoot: diagnosis, alarm check, syslog search, debug snapshots, power and connection history	Yes	Yes
Find and read settings by name	Yes	Yes
Fleet views: collections, online and offline counts, which collections hold a device	Yes	Yes
Back up a configuration to a local file; check a queued command	Yes	Yes
Change settings and apply staged changes	No	Yes
Upload, set or restore a configuration	No	Yes
Reboot, factory reset and firmware update	No	Yes
Add devices to or remove them from a collection	No	Yes

Battery health estimates are available on the 90X1 and 90X2. This table records the capabilities at launch; the DataRemote MCP product page is kept current and carries example questions and the full set of controls.

Controls and safeguards

• Read-only by default. Change tools are withheld from the assistant until changes are switched on in the MCP’s settings, and nothing said in a conversation can turn them on.
• Factory reset and firmware update must be explicitly confirmed in the request, and the assistant is expected to confirm the device serial number with the user first.
• Answers state what is unknown. A missing reading is reported as unknown rather than zero, and a diagnosis says what it could and could not check.
• Restores are protected. A restore first takes a safety backup of the current configuration, goes only onto the device the backup came from unless explicitly allowed otherwise, and refuses a backup altered since it was saved.
• Commands are not resent. Reboot, reset and firmware commands return as queued with an ID; one that times out is reported as unknown and never sent twice.
• Device text is labelled. Log lines and other text reported by devices arrive marked as untrusted, so the assistant treats them as data rather than instructions.

What the MCP does not do

• It does not connect to devices directly or see anything DataRemote’s API does not expose.
• It does not go beyond the customer’s own account and permissions.
• It does not decrypt sealed configurations or diagnose an offline device; it reports that a device is offline and when it was last seen.
• It does not change any device’s hardware capabilities. Its availability has no effect on certifications, listings or carrier approvals, which remain model-specific and are documented in the Trust Center.

About Ara and POTS IN A BOX®

Ara is DataRemote’s device management platform for provisioning, monitoring and troubleshooting DataRemote devices, with a developer API for integrating provisioning, monitoring and billing into other systems. POTS IN A BOX® is DataRemote’s family of 5G and LTE appliances — cellular gateways and integrated access devices — that replace analog copper lines for voice, fax, alarm, elevator and M2M connections, with battery backup and automatic cellular failover. Capabilities and certifications vary by model; see each product page.

About DataRemote, Inc.

Since 1991, DataRemote has built machine-to-machine and cellular technology, specializing in cellular routers and modems that replace TDM wireline circuits, backed by engineering and sales support. Its hardware serves enterprises across retail, healthcare, oil and gas, utilities, transportation, manufacturing, construction and government.