Locating Your Location Based Service Provider
by Nicki Hayes
Location, location, location! How many times have we read, heard or verbalized this commonly used piece of mobile mantra? True, the wireless web offers huge opportunities for location specific information provision, but what positioning technologies are available to provide the type of pinpoint accuracy needed by the killer applications that analysts such as the Forrester Group predict? WirelessDevNet.com investigates, comparing two networked based technologies provided by SnapTrack and Cell-Loc with conventional GPS.
New GPS-based services could be the long awaited killer application for the wireless industry, according to analysts. Already in place in Japan, subscribers in other markets will soon be able to use GPS-enabled mobile phones, PDAs and other wireless devices to locate themselves and tap into new applications like mobile yellow pages, enhanced safety calling and roadside assistance, location sensitive billing, personal navigation and tracking services.
The market potential for such services is huge. Estimates form industry analysts such as Ovum Research and the Strategis Group value wireless location-based services at $4 billion by 2004 in the US and at $30 billion worldwide. The Forrester Group has labeled location-based services as the "killer app" for mobile data applications and services and believes that thin-client, location-relevant services will dominate the mobile e-commerce and consumer wireless data markets. In the US, the development of such services is encouraged by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) mandate (E911) that by the end of 2001 all US wireless operators will begin to provide the location of mobile emergency callers to safety officials and emergency dispatchers. There are many regulators in other countries worldwide that are beginning to explore mandating wireless location in this way too, including
France, Canada, and Brazil.
Given the combined pressures of the commercial market and government regulation mobile phones with a high-quality GPS location feature will soon be available globally. Potential application and service providers need to start looking at ways to develop best-of-breed location specific solutions now. A good place to start would be to look at the positioning technologies currently available from organizations such as SnapTrack and Cell-Loc, both of which substantially differ from conventional GPS. We spoke to both organizations to see what's on offer.
So what positioning technologies, other than GPS are available and how do such technologies add value to conventional GPS?
Two organizations that have been capturing media and market attention for their solutions to the E911 mandate are SnapTrack (www.snaptrack.com) and Cell-Loc (www.cell-loc.com).
SnapTrack's personal GPST wireless location solutions fuse the intelligence and power of networks in the mobile environment with the accuracy and coverage of GPS. It improves upon conventional GPS by combining information from satellites and wireless networks to pinpoint a wireless phone, far more accurately and reliably than conventional GPS is able to.
John Cunningham, a spokesperson for Snap Track, explains:
"Traditional GPS receivers may take several minutes to provide a location fix, Snap Track's solutions generally locate callers within a few seconds. Callers are typically located to within 3-20 meters in a wide range of challenging call environments where other GPS-based wireless location systems fail to perform, including inside houses, moving vehicles, under heavy foliage in canyons. Snap Track's unique 'Location on DemandT' feature also ensures a caller's privacy putting location information in the needs of the user not the network".
Cell-Loc also uses a network-based solution to locate wireless devices, claiming three primary advantages associated with network-based solutions above conventional GPS, including cost, ease of use, and availability.
The question of cost is very persuasive. As Cell-Loc's technology uses the existing wireless device without the need to modify with receivers, and the network uses existing Cellular towers and base stations, there are relatively low costs involved in establishing Cell-Loc's wireless location technology.
And because Cell-Loc's technology locates the wireless devices directly from the base station, unlike GPS where the wireless device is looking to locate the satellite, there is no added power consumption. In addition, with Cell-Loc's network based solution, upgrades to current handsets are not necessary.
"With respect to cost, a network-solution is deployed once and addresses all wireless users. Therefore, E911 is available to any Cell phone user with no direct cost. However, with a GPS handset
solution, each and every handset must be equipped with a GPS chip which means subscribers must upgrade their phones at a cost of at least $200 per handset. In addition, there is still no guarantee that E911 will be available. With over 100 million handsets in the US, this poses quite an inconvenience and cost directly to subscribers," advised Dr. Michel Fattouche, president and CEO, Cell-Loc.
SnapTrack makes similar claims about cost, also claiming to minimize power consumption by taking a "snapshot" of the GP's signal when a location request is made. When compared to the continual operation of conventional GPS, which requires significantly more power, the cost savings must be substantial.
Ease of use is an important consideration of location-based applications, especially in an emergency scenario, according to Dr Fattouche:
"Ease of use is an advantage that a network based solution offers because it is passive. This means that as long as your phone is on, you can be located automatically if desired. However, with GPS, you must locate yourself with satellites, then communicate your location through a link to the E911 center. This is not an easy solution in an emergency," he explained.
With the E911 FCC deadline fast approaching in US and other countries looking to follow the lead, availability must be a key consideration too. Cell-Loc claim this as another advantage:
"Cell-Loc's network-based solution is functional now and available now unlike GPS assisted handsets. In addition, network-based solutions have been proven to be the superior wireless location technology in urban environments because unlike GPS, with network-based solutions, there is no line-of-site issue," added Dr Fattouche.
So, it seems that the key differentiators of technologies such as SnapTrack and Cell-Loc above conventional GPS are accuracy, coverage, speed, privacy, cost, ease of use and availability. To help with this decision making process, here's a summary of each technology's claims regarding such criteria:
