NaviGadget

Telecoms, Web firms jostle over location services

Feb 23, 2006 gps navigation, misc news

When U.S. regulators required that mobile handsets carry an electronic beacon giving the user’s whereabouts, they handed telecoms and technology companies a hot new business opportunity.

Sprint Nextel and Verizon are already using the technology to help companies locate employees who are on the road and to aid travelers planning a weekend trip, charging up to $15 a month for their services.

But Google Inc. and other Web services firms are now stepping into the arena, threatening to bite into the phone companies’ share of the market even as they offer opportunities for cooperation in new types of services.

Google, Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have an edge over carriers because of their low costs and their ability to reach any customer with a browser — increasingly a standard feature on cell phones.

“No group is better equipped to steal the march than the Internet services companies,” said Mark Becker at Atos Consulting.

They may develop services in-house, but they may also be tempted to buy established navigation brands such as TomTom, or software firms such as Route 66 in the Netherlands, Telmap in Israel, or Navicore and Wayfinder in Sweden, Fortis Bank analyst Felix Oberdorfer said.

BOOST FROM U.S. INITIATIVE

Opportunities for location services got a major boost from the United States’ e911 directive, which aims to help emergency workers to locate people in need.

In response, U.S. telecoms operators in the United States now sell mobile phones that contain a Global Positioning System (GPS) chip, which gives the user’s precise position, and software to speed up the location process.

That software, which assists the GPS and hence is named Assisted-GPS, or A-GPS, is used in the services offered by Sprint and Verizon.

Only seven years ago, navigation systems that used GPS technology were an exclusive feature in expensive cars that added $3,000 or more to the vehicle’s cost.

Around 2002, navigation systems, while still used mostly as a driving aid, broke below $1,000 for a handheld computer connected to a GPS unit.

Today a dedicated standalone navigation device from TomTom or Garmin, which a user can carry anywhere, costs as little as $300 and the companies estimate that 14 million units will be sold this year alone… reuters