January 20, 2005—RFID hardware and software provider Intermec of Everett, Washington, and Germany's retail giant METRO Group today announced the completion of an RFID deployment at METRO's most heavily trafficked distribution center in Unna, Germany. Part of METRO's ambitious plans to deploy RFID throughout its supply chain, the implementation has seen more than 50,000 pallets tagged and scanned already. The most compelling statistic, however, is the read-rates on these pallets: 99%. With one of the most commonly cited hurdles to widespread RFID adoption being inadequate read rates, such a near-perfect number coming from one of the world's busiest deployments is an encouraging sign that perhaps RFID technology is improving faster than many expected. With the initiatives of both METRO Group and Wal-Mart now underway, expect to see increasingly common reports from the front lines of RFID deployment.