Contents - Connect-World

Location Based Systems
Figure 1: Powerful new applications have been deployed recently in
the Asia-Pacific region.
of the global GSM subscriber market,
in both established and emerging
markets.
The main findings were:
ˆ Demand for high accuracy solutions
is growing as operators seek to
differentiate their service offerings in
saturating markets.
With operators planning to deploy
new high accuracy location technologies,
new market entrants are looking
to high accuracy location-based services
as an immediate marketing
advantage in the fight for customers;
ˆ Although high accuracy location
solutions will be the catalyst for location-based
services, deployment costs
must be extremely cost-effective;
ˆ Existing low accuracy Cell-ID
based services have proved disappointing
in terms of application innovation
and consumer take-up;
ˆ Corporate vehicle, fleet and workforce
management will help drive
early usage of high accuracy services
in the corporate market;
ˆ The major consumer market driver
will be information services, with
rapid growth predicted for personal
and child safety services.
Since this research took place, the
market has moved forward, underlining
the rapid pace at which location
based services are moving into the
mainstream of operator service
deployments.
“The increased bandwidth
of WCDMA promises
even higher accuracy
levels and new opportunities
for applications
developers to exploit.”
Powerful new applications
have been deployed
recently in the Asia
Pacific region, highlighting
the willingness of
operators to launch new
location-enabled services
for the enterprise market.
In China, a cooperative
approach between operators,
value added service
providers and solution
providers is a perfect
example of this progress.
Within months of successful
technology trials
in a mix of dense urban, suburban
and rural environments a new generation
of high accuracy location-based
services will be launched for the
enterprise market in early 2005.
Vehicle, personnel and asset tracking
will be the initial services offered, but
it should not be long before we see
consumer services available from
every handset.
The scene described in the opening
paragraph of this article is becoming
a reality. Location is rapidly emerging,
not just as a standalone service,
but to enable widely accepted everyday
applications.
These lessons will soon be used in
new WCDMA, broadband mobile systems;
location is expected to be one of
the fundamental drivers for service
take-up.
The increased bandwidth of WCDMA
promises even higher accuracy levels
and new opportunities for applications
developers to exploit.
Location is moving into the mainstream.
It is one of the best examples
of an emerging technology in the
wireless world today. Operators are
making it a key part of their service
portfolio, major global solution
providers are integrating the technology,
new devices and exciting and
innovative location-based services
are gaining traction.
Not that long ago, location-based
services were both hype and hope.
Today, we can see they are very much
a reality.
www.connect-world.com
We are enhancing
our website to
make it even more
user friendly,
informative
and accessible.
You will see the
results in the
coming months.
What would
you like to see us
add to
or change on
Connect-Worlds
website
Please let us know.
Send your comments
via email to:
info@connect-world.com
The decision makers’
forum for
ICT driven development
www.connect-world.com
60