LBS GLOBE - Your Definitive Source For Location-Based Services Information

NAVIGATION, TRAFFIC, TELEMATICS - Travel behavior gathered with high-sensitive GPS (GPS World - 3-18-08)
How do you increase capacity of transportation systems without new construction? Through improved planning. Gathering data on who is traveling where, when, and why is being made possible through the use of the Global Positioning System Automated Travel Diary (GPS-ATD). The intuitive user interface captures trip information, with minimal user input and burden, and wireless ties personal and vehicular GPS-ATD units together. The result? A unit that could prove useful for the 2010 California Statewide Household Travel Survey.

To accurately capture the full spectrum of travel behavior, surveys need to be carried out over several weeks while maintaining data accuracy and minimizing the respondents' burden. Earlier longitudinal surveys using GPS have shown great potential. GPS-based surveys are more accurate and minimize the respondent burden. In one study, 75 percent of respondents took less than one minute to enter all required trip information into the travel diary, compared to 10 minutes on a paper diary or 20 minutes on a follow-up phone call. In addition, GPS digital data can be readily imported into computer analysis programs. This approach captures route choice, path, and speed profile information - items not feasible with traditional paper surveys. Such data may be used to measure the level of congestion of a particular highway, for instance. Read More>>

Analysis - This is an interesting expansion of using GPS for more than just map data or traffic information, extending into personal behavior patterns.

UWB, LOCATION TECHNOLOGIES - UWB Location Technology Develops Mass Market Momentum (GPS World - 3-6-08)
It sounds too good to be true: A technology that can see through walls, transfer gigabytes of data in seconds, utilize signals that go undetected because of their low frequency (and are thus secure), and provide a viable real-time location system (RTLS) capability with a positioning accuracy in the 15 to 30cm range, in three dimensions.

Oh, and by the way, the signals travel seamlessly through concrete, rock, and metal obstacles. Welcome to the world of Ultra Wide Band (UWB) technology. read more  >>

Analysis - This article has a fascinating graph on accuracy requirements by application.

LBS Industry Outlook - Location Based Services 2008 (Compete via RCR Wireless - 2-18-08)
In 2008, the wireless industry appears poised to continue its move to a model where access is open to qualifying third-party developers and handset manufacturers. With this shift should come continued proliferation of applications, content and services for mobile phones.

Back in June 2006, Compete surveyed online wireless shoppers about their interest in and current use of mobile services and applications. The results suggested that consumers were interested in a number of different services and features (including Web browsing, personalization, entertainment and others) but had begun adopting only a few. Location-based services (LBS) took the top spot as to what consumers were most interested in (28%), but also had the largest gap between interest and actual usage.

Change slow in coming

Almost two years later, not a lot has changed. Consumers are still clamoring for LBS, but struggling to adopt it. In a similar December 2007 Compete study, GPS and navigation ranked second behind Internet connectivity as the service in which consumers were interested in, but didn't receive. Unlike previous years, however, consumer electronics companies are now entrenched in the GPS and navigation space, and consumers are finding their demand for LBS could be met by these companies. In December 2007 Compete asked those shopping online for consumer electronics devices about their interest in connecting certain devices to the Internet.

GPS/navigation devices were second only to laptop computers in terms of consumers' interest in connecting them to the Internet. If consumers are willing to connect a separate GPS device to the Internet, one would think they would be interested in receiving LBS through a connected device they already own and use: their mobile phone. Carriers have an opportunity in 2008 to control this process and drive LBS usage through applications on the phone rather than with separate devices. If they choose to ignore this opportunity, carriers should expect device manufacturers to continue to enter the LBS market and potentially steal first-mover advantage.

Pay to play

The resulting business opportunity is largely dependent on consumers' willingness to pay, which is something the industry has experimented with but certainly not perfected. In the same consumer electronics study, we asked consumers about their billing preferences for GPS and navigation systems.

The results indicate that consumers are very willing to pay for connectivity, and appear to prefer a month-to-month payment plan for LBS service. 28% of consumers said that they were willing to pay over $50 in a lump sum at the time of purchase (beyond device purchase price) to include LBS/GPS capabilities, while 39% said they would pay more than $5 monthly for these services. Capitalizing on consumers' willingness to pay will be an essential component to increasing LBS adoption in 2008.

Consumers have said that they are interested in LBS for years now, yet adoption still lags. Are consumers unaware of current capabilities? Are the pricing models unappealing? Has the technology not yet advanced? Is the delivery model flawed?
Read More>>

Analysis - Certainly finding the right business models have been a challenge for LBS providers in certain application categories, particularly those categories fixated on advertising as the major source of revenue, which we think will be slower in coming along than they expect.  The technology has certainly advanced, but remains a gating factor is select application categories.  The delivery model continues to constrained not withstanding the promised (and remains to be seen) opening up of carrier platforms. 

LBS Predictions for 2008 (David H. Williams, Publisher - http://www.LBSGlobe.com)
As 2007 comes to an end, we in the LBS industry should be thankful for what 2007 brought - 2007 was the true breakout year for LBS that we have been hoping for the several years.  As we turn our attention to 2008, we at LBS Globe have compiled our top 10 predictions in the LBS space.

1. The industry will shift its attention from "static" content, such as street map data, to dynamic content such as traffic and weather.

Behind the Scenes: Every PND maker, cell phone/carrier provider, and in-vehicle navigation system provider will or shortly will have a strong, viable navigation capability that will get a user from point A to point B in normal or "static" conditions. The next battle in the navigation space, and opportunity for differentiation, is how navigation systems upgrade their capabilities to deal with "dynamic" content, e.g. navigation-affecting conditions that can change daily, hourly, or by the minute.  Traffic and weather are the two most obvious examples of dynamic content, but there are others that directly or indirectly can affect navigation choices - construction, road surface conditions, seasonal POIs, etc. This information can enable the "holy grail" of navigation - dynamic/alternate routing when the normally "best" route deteriorates.
The Year in Map Data

2. Navigation systems will begin to become standard features in new cars, starting at the high end and eventually in 2009 for all new vehicles in the U.S.

Behind The Scenes: The mass-market appeal of navigation systems will move automakers to begin to view those systems as essential and appealing to the consumer as air conditioning and cruise control.  In addition continually dropping price points will make offering these systems standard will enable makers to offer them at relatively low cost, while improving their brand image and technology innovators.  See also Prediction 5 below.
The Year in Navigation and Telematics.

3. The crumbling of the carrier "walled garden" that began last month will continue, and while we eventually expect LBS providers to benefit from this trend, we believe carriers will be a bit slower to allow unfettered access to location information than they will for non-location applications, primarily because of privacy and network traffic volume concerns.

Behind the Scenes: Carriers are reacting - albeit belatedly and grudgingly - to the initiatives that others (particularly Google) are pursuing to making the wireless phone market much more of an open environment.  At least they are doing so in their public statements, but we (and many other industry analysts) expect that there actions will be significantly less than their words in this area.  Particularly with respect to location, and for good reason - location information is arguably the most sensitive type of wireless caller information with respect to privacy, AND, allowing unfettered access by third-parties to it will open a carrier's network to potentially huge (and unpredictable) spikes in network/location request volume.  They don't like that, to put it mildly, nor should they - network stability and predictability is the number one goal of any network engineer.
Developers Corner; Wireless Carrier LBS Offerings

4.  The consolidation/vertical integration of key LBS players that started in 2007 (e.g. Nokia acquisition of NAVTEQ, TomTom acquisition of Tele Atlas) will continue, particularly with content providers such as traffic provider Inrix. 
The Year in Traffic.

5. The "trend" of incorporating PNDs into in-vehicle navigation systems that began in 2007 will continue and accelerate; in fact by 2010 we expect most in-vehicle navigation systems will have "docking" capabilities with PNDs and cell phones.
The Year in Navigation and Telematics.

6. Family finder, Mobile social networking, and Mobile local search will realize the biggest growth (in % terms) of consumer LBS apps in 2008.
The Year in E911/Personal Safety, The Year in Mobile Social Networking, The Year in Mobile Local Search

7. Enterprise LBS will experience rapid growth in the new year, led by health care.  RFID and location-enabled Wi-Fi will continue their head-to-head battle for dominance in this market, with no clear winner by the end of the year.

8. The convergence of RFID, location-enabled Wi-Fi and Wi-Max, and GPS and LBS application enablers that begun in 2007 will continue and accelerate, with certain applications (particularly asset tracking) taking particular advantage of this convergence.  Chipsets that integrate these technologies will begin to appear towards the end of 2008.

9.  LBS applications that are tightly integrated with the desktop will rise in demand, as consumers (and enterprises) come to expect a seamless experience with respect to location between their home, work, and mobile computing platforms.

10. Advancements in the user interface for many LBS apps will continue to accelerate.  We expect voice response/recognition and other technologies such as text to voice to become standard on many applications (particularly navigation-related applications). New user interface innovations will continue to emerge, including new announcements in the heads up display area.

Behind The Scenes: We've been preaching seemingly forever about the importance of the User Interface in the deployment of LBS applications; it now seems to have reached a high level of strategic importance industry-wide. 

Forget PNDs - PNS is where it's at (Abbie Badcock - 11-26-07)
Summary: Article probes question: Can personalized navigation services save Nav and LBS Industry?

With a turbulent year of acquisitions, fierce PND competition and substantial movements from web moguls Google and Yahoo!, 2007 heralds a paradigm shift in personalized service offerings for navigation and LBS providers.

Industry players need to take notice. Demands to provide personalized services for consumers have fuelled the need for companies to realign their navigation offerings and business models. In a recent article, Telematics Update's Abbie Badcock caught up with some industry analysts and navigation providers as they outline what delivery strategies will be best placed to propel navigation to next generation status. This article addresses prime delivery strategies for personalized navigation services from a series of pre-conference interviews for Navigation and Location 2007, San Jose, 4-5^th December 2007. Read More>>

How Smart does your phone need to be? (BBC News - 11-8-07)
Mobile phones come with ever more features; whether we use them is crucial to a billion-dollar industry. Location-Based Services expected to be big winner.
Can your phone take pictures? Probably yes.

But can it sync with the diary and contacts on your computer? Download and play music and videos? Play video games? Browse the web, do your e-mail? Tell you where you are and where to go?

Tax Break Incentives for Mobile Workforce Management Procurements  (from our blog partner www.maperture.net - 11-5-07)
Navtrak penned press today highlighting a little known IRS tax deduction rule for technology purchases up to $112K. 

Specifically, IRS Section 179 allows a sole proprietor, partnership or corporation to fully expense tangible property in the year it is purchased. And tax-law changes over the past few years have made this option much more appealing by dramatically increasing the amount that can be written off immediately (up to $112,000).

While written for any technology purchase deduction, Navtrak crafted additional language to support a mobile workforce management and tracking application package offering to SMBs.  Shout outs to John Page.

Analysis - Mobile Resource Management providers - take this and run with it!

UK Cross-Carrier Cell-ID Location Access (Revisited)  (from our blog partner www.maperture.net - 11-5-07)
Socialight's volunteered views to psfk for their work in enabling UK cross-carrier Cell-ID Location cooperation needed for Mobile Social Networking, highlights the first rule non-exclusive need for LBS wares to traverse networks. Case in point-traffic transparency that we see today in the US and globally for SMS and MMS, but lacking for Location traffic.

For those unfamiliar with this UK Location history, carriers gathered together, identified a cooperative need for wholesale, and decided to collectively expose their data at different prices. What followed was an explosive build of start-ups launching what each marketed as cross-carrier LBS 'partnerships' and wholesale pricing claims towards innovation. Due credit however in reality belongs to Parliament and advocates, rather than to app providers still piggy-backing on the accomplishment. 

The below is a sample output of the initial effort, which today now seems like a bloated set of pricing for a commodity - one which US carriers still resist to offer up collectively. 

Analysis - To us what is most impressive is the recognition by these carriers that location-roaming cooperation will be essential to multi-user LBS applications like mobile social networking.  Wouldn't hold your breath looking for that to happen in North America.

al-Aqsa missle strikes with Google Earth (from our blog partner www.maperture.net - 10-25-07)

Location 2.0 Summit

Holocaust Museum to document the genocidal crisis in Darfur

this Guardian clip

Analysis - Note that 23 of these acquisitions have occurred this year alone, and that the average size has grown tremendously.  Thanks to Jon Spinney for compiling this list.

Tele Atlas sees great consumer comfort with GPS (10-22-07)
San Francisco, CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment, October 22, 2007 - Tele Atlas (FSE: TA6, EUNV: TA), a leading global provider of digital maps and dynamic content for navigation and location-based solutions, today announced findings of the recent Tele Atlas Wireless GPS Study, which revealed the vast majority (84 percent) of consumers surveyed view built-in GPS as a valuable feature for their mobile phone.  In addition, nearly 75 percent want to use the device to find points of interest (POIs) or other information about their surroundings. The company conducted the study in conjunction with global market research firm Synovate to monitor consumer interest in using mobile phones for navigation and other LBS applications, as well as attitudes toward paying for such services.  Read More>>

Analysis - to us this is a very positive indicator that most people don't feel threatened (from a privacy or abuse potential standpoint) by LBS/GPS.  Of course this could change rapidly if a negative incident gets major press, so developers can't let down their guard. 

Vendors Develop Location and Tracking Solutions - Reprinted with permission by Katie Kelley (Mission Critical Comunications magazine) - 10-17-07)
Several businesses and universities are working on different aspects of first-responder location-and-tracking solutions. Various technologies, from Wi-Fi to mesh networks to GPS to tradional LMR, are being tailored to boost the safety of mission-critical professionals.

Azure Wireless developed SafeScene, an automatic accountability system for first responders entering an emergency scene. The system detects a transponder tag affixed to a first responder on arrival and then wirelessly transmits data from the tag to a gateway. The gateway, a device that can be installed in the trunk of an emergency vehicle, transmits that information to a notebook computer or tablet at the command post. "We found that there is a huge need in the public-safety end for an accountability system that allows for management to detect the arrival of first responders automatically and not in the traditional means," says John Polakowski, president of Azure Wireless.

The first responder's name, agency, other identity information, qualifications, medical information, training, and an image of the person can be transmitted to the command post. SafeScene is limited to providing only on-scene arrival information - not in-building tracking - and Polakowski is unsure if the industry is any closer to tracking first responders indoors. "I think that's a dangerous promise to make, and I don't know if it's something that anyone can keep," he says. 

Active Control Technology (ACT) deployed a system to track miners who often work in unstable environments with obscure radio frequencies. Read More>>

Analysis - The solutions described in this article cover a new type of location ecosystem - a temporary multi-user location system that can be setup (and torn down) very quickly.  It also includes extensive personnel management capabilities, something that is critically important in significant-scale emergencies (as small as a building fire), where you have multiple emergency responder organizations responding to the emergency with no initial coordination infrastructure, and in fact the officers on the scene may have no idea of who is on the scene let alone their location.

ABI Research: Quit the whining - Nokia wins this round (Reprinted by permission from ABI Research - 10-15-07)
In the days since the NAVTEQ purchase announcement by Nokia, there have been several sour-grapes expressions of "We didn't want them anyway," and continued sputtering about the price paid by Nokia.

Quit the whining. All the arguments are very thin. Nokia has a vision, a strategy to achieve that vision, and they're acting on it. If their actions are causing some re-examination of strategic direction within the industry, that is probably a good thing. Lots of technology companies and Wall Street analysts out there just don't get it. It seems Nokia does. Maybe it's the fresh air in Finland, or maybe they just think more long term. Probably both.

Motorola is a good example. CEO Ed Zander has been quoted as saying "We looked at it and went our own way," and "We are not in the applications business." The implication was that Moto is going to focus on hardware and platforms. Alright - a valid strategy, but one which strikes me as extremely risky. You don't have to be "in the applications business" to realize that hardware is heading toward commoditization, and the services delivered through applications running on that hardware will be the revenue stream. Michael Dell is learning that lesson right now, as are Gateway and Packard Bell. Read More>>

Disney dumps MVNO - Another analysis (Reprinted with permission, Fierce Wireless, Sue Marek - 10-5-07)
Within an hour of hearing that Walt Disney Co. had shuttered its Disney Mobile MVNO, my email in-basket suddenly filled with notes from a handful of existing MVNOs asking me to speak with them. Their mission was clear: they want to distance themselves from Disney Mobile and all the other high-profile MVNOs that have failed over the past year by telling me why their business will succeed. It's tough to be an MVNO when all your peers are closing their doors.

Disney Mobile's closing comes as little surprise. For those of us following this segment over the past few years, we've watched the MVNO business model rise and fall. The MVNO strategy, once touted as the next great growth opportunity in the wireless industry, is now disdained after high-profile failures of initiatives such as Mobile ESPN and Amp'd Mobile. Read More>>

Read more on the "demise" of MVNOs.

Dash Delays Product Launch, Conducts Nationwide Tests (LBS Insider - 10-1-07)
In September 2006, when Sunnyvale, California-based Dash Navigation said it would roll out its new navigation system by the Christmas 2007 season, analysts and industry insiders believed it was an ambitious beginning.

Apparently, it was too ambitious. Dash recently said it would delay the introduction of its navigation system, Dash Express, until the first quarter of 2008, with full rollouts in the second quarter. read more>>

Analysis - This delay puts Dash in a very vulnerable position, what with the proliferation of navigation devices and applications by PNDs and cellular carriers; the carriers in particular will have made very significant inroads in the navigation space by that time. 

Trashy Yards - A new generation of map data (SeattlePI.com - 9-20-07)
Call it a difference in taste: Some people landscape their yards with flowers and trees, others with rusting, inanimate objects.

Take one yard in the 2000 block of East Madison Street, for instance. Before city inspectors slapped the owner with a warning, there was a trailer-truck resting on a blanket of trash. A cluster of inoperable vehicles flanked 15 lawnmowers, two refrigerators, a dishwasher and a collection of old computers.

Understandably irked, a neighbor called Seattle's Department of Planning and Development to complain, adding to the 2,008 complaints the city received about junk storage and overgrown weeds between January 2006 and July 22 of this year.

Overall, the department issued almost 2,500 citations and notices of violations between January 2006 and the end of this July -- many for the same properties.

"Some of them come up -- sadly -- every year," said Karen White, director of code compliance for the department. "There are properties in the city where every year we get overgrowth complaints." Often, complaints of junk storage are leveled against "hoarders" or "junkers," city inspector Kristine Beaton said. Sometimes those people repair broken items to sell; sometimes they're just in the habit of collecting junk, she said.

An analysis of weed and junk violation data from the 19 months preceding Aug. 1 showed that West Seattle residents were cited 419 times for deviating from city standards -- by far the most of any Seattle neighborhood as defined by Metro King County.

Mardi Roberts has lived in her Seward Park home for 23 years, the last five of which have been complicated by neighbors who let their yard grow into an unbridled copse of grass, trees and blackberry bushes. Rats have been seen scuttling about in the bushes, and "the trees are so overgrown, I don't know how they can get up the stairs," Roberts said. Years ago, she approached the couple with a "neighborly request" that they cut their grass.The couple obliged. They mowed their lawn once, then never again, she said.

When it comes to overgrown weeds, the city usually only steps in when sidewalks are becoming impassable or when overgrowth jeopardizes public safety, Beaton said. But that's not always the way neighbors see it.

"Property owners can keep their yards the way they want, but depending on the neighborhood, that can really bug people."

And it can make a difference. Real estate agent Deborah Arends said having messy neighbors next door could decrease the amount a home sells for by 5 percent to 15 percent, especially in the modern age of "drive-by buyers" who place a lot of emphasis on curb appeal.  Read More>>

Analysis - We are beginning to think there is no limit to the type of information that can be geocoded.  This trash data would make an excellent addition to a real estate LBS application.

New Wi-Fi technology offers new hope for locating miners (Wi-Fi Planet - 9-20-07)
Rajant Corporation was founded in late 2001 immediately following the events of 9/11, with the aim of providing a solution to the problems experienced by first responders at Ground Zero, when different agencies using different radio systems were unable to communicate with each other. The company's BreadCrumb series of products is designed to create an instant 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network in any situation.

Key to the solution, according to Glenn Booth, Rajant's vice president of marketing, is the fact that it can be deployed by personnel who don't have any advanced technical knowledge. "The BreadCrumb is a ruggedized network node that has one single switch on it, on or off," he says. "And it quickly turns up, turns on, figures out what other BreadCrumbs are around, and connects to all of them in a mesh."

The result is a mesh network that can support a wide range of devices and applications. "You can use IP devices, you can use PDAs, you can use VoIP phones, you can use IP cameras and laptops, etc., to talk to one another over multiple VPN streams through this cloud in a secure fashion," Booth says.

The U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) contacted Rajant about a year and a half ago, Booth says, to explore the possibility of using the company's solution in mines - and Rajant is currently undergoing testing with MSHA towards becoming approved for that use nationwide. In the meantime, the BreadCrumb system was approved last month by the West Virginia Office of Miner's Health, Safety and Training (WV OMHS&T), and is now listed on its Web site as fulfilling the state's safety requirements for underground mining.

In a mine cave-in, Booth notes, basic communications infrastructure like leaky feeder can get crushed and broken, resulting in a real need for a mesh network like Rajant's. And even under normal conditions, Booth says leaky feeder's coverage is always going to be limited. "The entrance to the mine isn't covered by it - and then newly excavated mine takes a while before leaky feeder makes its way in there," he says.

Still, it's in an emergency that the BreadCrumb system's adaptability can be particularly helpful. "You don't really know the new configuration, unfortunately, after an explosion or a cave-in-and that's the challenge," Booth says. In a situation like that, Booth says, rescuers can simply drill a hole and drop in a BreadCrumb. "It can quickly determine if there are any active BreadCrumbs around, and if so, link up to them and link into everything else," he says. "So it's a new backhaul point for the BreadCrumb wireless network... and if any of the miners have a VoIP phone or any IP-enabled device, they can talk to the outside world." Booth says the speed with which the network can reconfigure itself is a key differentiator for Rajant. "In milliseconds, the whole network adjusts and stabilizes," he says. "And that's really important in an emergency situation, because you could have a BreadCrumb on a mining car, you could have a BreadCrumb on a rescue vehicle going into the mine itself, or you could have one on an ambulance outside."

At the same time, Booth notes that Rajant only supplies one part of the solution-the network-and there are a lot of other pieces of the puzzle, including the tracking of individual miners, for which Booth says Rajant's current BreadCrumb product is too heavy. "There are some other companies that are making, essentially, RFID tags for miners... and we're working with those types of people," he says. Read More>>

Analysis - Looks like there is new hope for tracking miners in an emergency, despite predictions that the technology is "years away." (See second article below)

Operators could face new E-911 requirements (Reprinted with permission - Fierce Wireless, Lynnette Luna, 9-12-07)
We are reprinting this article from May given the FCC order on Sept. 11 that mandated these requirements.

It's been a tough road for wireless E-911. More than 10 years ago the FCC mandated wireless E-911, requiring every operator to deploy technology capable of tracking down a caller dialing 911. Wireless operators begged and fought for waivers to deadlines, missed many deadlines, paid millions in fines for missed deadlines, ripped out expensive location technology because it didn't work and received complaints from PSAPs (public safety answering point)--the point of first response for firefighters, police and other 911 calls--about the lack of operator responsiveness.

Just when you think everyone has their acts together when it comes to wireless E-911, a new report released last month finds that location-based wireless emergency service is not very consistent in pinpointing callers. And the FCC may order carriers to do more - alot more. Read More>>

Tracking mine workers years away (NY Times - 8-23-07)
Perhaps the most wrenching aspect of the Crandall Canyon Mine collapse, for rescue workers and families alike, is that no one knows the exact location of the six trapped miners. After a dozen miners were killed in the disaster at the Sago Mine in West Virginia early last year, Congress passed a bill that, among other things, requires mining companies to track workers deep underground. But although the measure, the Miner Act of 2006, was signed into law that June, it allows the nation's mine companies three years to install two-way communication devices and wireless systems that keep above-ground personnel abreast of miners' whereabouts.

Lawmakers in Washington and union officials have sharply criticized the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration as not pushing mining companies to put the new safety standards into effect more quickly. "They have years to implement the law, but there's no reason not to require that they do it sooner," said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, which represents 34 percent of the country's hourly coal miners. The union does not represent miners at Crandall Canyon, where six men have been missing since a cave-in on Aug. 6.

Mining officials say no fail-safe technology exists that can track workers or let them communicate wirelessly in deep mines like Crandall Canyon, where the missing miners are estimated to be some 1,800 feet into the earth. Cave-ins could also rupture communication devices like antennae, they said.

Robert M. Friend, the deputy assistant secretary of the mine safety agency, said Tuesday in a statement, "For the same reason that cellphone calls drop when traveling on the subway, or a submarine in the world's most powerful, technologically advanced navy has to come near the surface to achieve radio contact, the technology to meet the needs in an underground, highly volatile mine atmosphere does not exist."

Mr. Friend added, "Put simply, there are no approved two-way wireless tracking or voice communication systems that exist today that are able to penetrate hundreds or thousands of feet of rock."  Read More>>

Analysis - While not mine communications engineers (but yes communications systems designers), we take issue with these last three paragraphs. While certainly the harshness of mine environmental conditions and the destructive nature of cave-ins does in all likelihood prevent the implementation of a "fail-safe" or "cave-in proof" tracking system, having some sort of tracking system is better than none. 

For example, setting up RFID readers at various points throughout the mine, with each miner having a tag that is read as they pass the reader, with that information communicated via redundant communications systems (reporting each miner's location every few minutes or real-time) to nodes/links in the primary mine shafts for communications to the surface would at least let rescuers know where the miners were immediately before the collapse.  And detecting which readers/communications links/nodes were out of commission would give them an idea of the extent of the collapse and which areas immediately adjacent to collapse might provide sanctuary. Saying the technology doesn't exist to provide a material improvement to this issue is just baloney.

Levels of Search (Reprinted with Permission, By Rhonda Wickham, Wireless Week) 
For me, Google is the fastest way for me to get information I need while I working at my desk. Granted, the search giant's super-powered servers and architecture allow it to return millions of possibilities to my online search efforts in fractions of seconds. And perhaps I just scan the first 20 or 30 hits for something appropriate for my needs. If that doesn't work, I might further refine my search.

These are in addition to children/family security offerings provided by Disney Mobile, Verizon Wireless, Sprint, Wherify, SK Telecom, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Vodafone, KDDI, DoCoMo and others.

While Safety and Security is obviously an attractive LBS application category in general (except in France apparently); after all, the penetration into the teen and "tween" markets over the last two years has been dramatic - driven by parents safety concerns - there is cause for concern regarding the ever growing number of providers. To survive and prosper, these providers will need to continue to innovate and differentiate from a functionality and marketing perspective - they can't "stand pat."  If they do, they will disappear, or be replicated by other providers. 

The Navigation Platform:  In-Vehicle versus Portable - Which will win? (David H. Williams, Publisher LBS Globe 6-25-07)
In-Vehicle or Portable? That was a question that continually was asked during April's Mobile Location Services Conference in Detroit in several panels, even one LBS Globe moderated that was focused on mobile local search advertising. The question centered around what would be the "winning" navigation platform; would it be dedicated in-vehicle/fixed on-board systems; would it be PND devices that could pop in and out of the dashboard to use in and out of the car; or would both of those be relegated to the dustbin by the navigation capabilities becoming available on traditional cell phones?  Or would it be something else?

Some people thought that at the end of the day there would be only one winner, similar to the VHS vs. Betamax video player platform battle. Others thought there would be one major winner with one or perhaps two niche specialty players as in Windows versus Mac. A few thought these types of platform categorizations and predictions were too near-term focused, and pointed to platforms like a future iPod/iPhone; future game system consoles; exceptionally low cost dedicated devices that opened whole new markets; or even brand new convergent platforms using a variety of navigation technologies such as RFID and Wi-Fi in addition to GPS as alternative platforms having the potential to turn navigation platform thinking (and indeed LBS platform thinking in general) on its head.  

While LBS Globe doesn't pretend to be a soothsayer, our analysis comes out on the side that several of these platforms can all be winners, IF they play their business and technical design cards right. Read More>>


What Ails the MVNOs?  Not Learning from History (6-11-07, David Williams CEO, E911-LBS Consulting, Publisher LBS Globe)

This article is not about location, at least directly.  But the increasing concerns over the health of the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) industry, most recently exhibited by the Amp'd bankruptcy filing, should be cause for alarm for the LBS industry as many of these MVNOs such as Disney Mobile and Helio are placing significant emphasis on LBS.  If the MVNO market in general collapses, then there will be fewer opportunities for LBS developers to get their applications to market and fewer choices for consumers, slowing adoption.  So the location industry needs to take note.

So what are the problems, and how can they be fixed?  Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it, and this is happening to MVNOs.  The relevant history I'm talking about is the Total Services Resale (TSR) wireline industry of the late 1990s, one that remarkably resembles the MVNO industry.  Bear with me on providing some context - it's ancient history - but it is essential to understanding the roots of the problems MVNOs are experiencing...  Read More>>

The Secret of Success for Location-Based Services - Targeting Your Market (David H. Williams, 5-28-07, Publisher LBSGlobe)

LBS is finally here to stay! Location technical issues have been addressed, carrier bias and historical scars have healed, delivery platforms have deeply penetrated the potential user base, and users themselves have become much more comfortable about using wireless location.  So what's left to address? The answer: compelling applications.  And what is the secret to developing compelling applications? The answer: tightly targeting your market, both from a functionality and marketing perspective. Read More>>

The Dark Side of Telematics - GPS-enabled Auto Repossession (David H. Williams, Publisher LBS Globe - 5-24-07)

Many new and used car dealers who are specializing in secondary or bad credit financing are "protecting their investments" (or abusing their customers, depending on your point of view), with a combination of GPS and "ignition - kill" devices. Basically if a car buyer falls behind on his or her payments, the lender can remotely "kill" the ignition (basically an electronic version of the "Boot" that police agencies use to make frequent parking ticket offenders pay their fines) making it impossible to start, and then use the GPS capability to route the repoman directly to the car, where they "unkill" it and repossess it. 

The sub-prime market and used car dealers love this capability for obvious (makes repossession much easier and lower cost, and serves as a deterrent to falling behind on the payments) and not obvious reasons (they literally can and do sell the car multiple times). There are no laws to protect consumers from this practice, which is particularly popular in areas like the southwest that have a large sub-prime market in the immigrant population. With a nationwide repossession rate of over 2% by some counts (and likely far higher in the sub-prime market) and growing, this practice is also very likely to grow, and numerous makers of these systems are emerging.

Bottom Line: While understandable from a business standpoint, business practices and privacy abuses like this could give GPS/LBS a bad name.  To blog on this topic, please go to http://www.maperture.net/.

Qualcomm's Health Care MVNO - The Goldilocks Solution to the LBS Market Delivery Platform Problem?  David H. Williams, Publisher LBS Globe - 5-17-07Qualcomm's announcement that it plans a Health Care and Fitness-oriented MVNO called LifeComm in 2008 (see Wireless Week Article 5-15-07, Brad Smith) significantly expands the concept of wireless target marketing, a development that could have a major impact on LBS strategy, development and deployment.  It potentially addresses the "Goldilocks" problem that many LBS providers have today - not having the right size and type of market delivery platform for LBS deployment.  Read More>>

Operators could face new E-911 requirements (Reprinted with permission - Fierce Wireless, Lynnette Luna, 5-7-07)
It's been a tough road for wireless E-911. More than 10 years ago the FCC mandated wireless E-911, requiring every operator to deploy technology capable of tracking down a caller dialing 911. Wireless operators begged and fought for waivers to deadlines, missed many deadlines, paid millions in fines for missed deadlines, ripped out expensive location technology because it didn't work and received complaints from PSAPs (public safety answering point)--the point of first response for firefighters, police and other 911 calls--about the lack of operator responsiveness.
 
Just when you think everyone has their acts together when it comes to wireless E-911, a new report released last month finds that location-based wireless emergency service is not very consistent in pinpointing callers. Read More>>

Analysis - The underlying issue is the lack of a measurement methodology "mandate". When the FCC set its accuracy requirements, it did not dictate how the measurements showing compliance with those requirements would be conducted, e.g. at a city level, county level, and particularly not at an urban vs. rural level. 

So what most carriers did was to aggregate their measurements at a state level and in the process "average" the accuracy readings over a wide geographical area.  Carriers would take measurements in areas and in volumes that reflected the location and volume of their subscribers. Since urban areas generally would have higher volumes of calls, and since those urban areas have a greater density of cell sites (more cell sites in a given area generally improve location determination calculation accuracy) versus rural areas, those urban readings both in terms of accuracy and volume "offset" those readings from more rural areas, making the final numbers look in compliance. Technically they were in compliance, even though there was a much higher degree of accuracy variability as a caller moved from area to area than most people realized.  The rural "only" carriers of course recognized this and petitioned the FCC to relax their requirements, but to no avail. 

It should be noted that after a rough start most carriers did an admirable job of meeting their E911 deadlines, even if the end results are still showing some rough spots as this report indicates.  The much bigger issue at the point is that most of the PSAPs in the U.S. still have not upgraded their infrastructure to receive and process wireless 911 location information due to lack of funding and coordination support.  While the variability in accuracy is of course an issue, it is moot if the PSAP that would handle the emergency call can't process the location information anyway.

Why LBS Applications Fail (David Williams, Publisher, LBS Globe - April 30th, 2007)

As the LBS market has finally taken off, a flurry of LBS application development has ramped up accordingly, with an increased urgency to be first to market.  This urgency increases the risk of missteps in the LBS business and technology development and launch processes. These missteps take the form of what I call the LBS Seven Deadly Sins.  Read More>>

Tele Atlas ContentLink Program (David Williams, Publisher, LBS Globe - April 16th, 2007)

In March this year Tele Atlas (TA) introduced its ContentLink program, a Web-based program for content production and distribution that gives location-based application developers access to a wide range of up-to-date, specialized content and points of interest (POIs).

Tele Atlas ContentLink is designed to streamline time-to-market by allowing developers to rapidly discover and obtain the latest content provided by publishers such as entertainment, lodging and services data. Content publishers of any size can post content to the ContentLink portal and leverage Tele Atlas' editing tools and specialized geocoding to categorize, locate and verify the precise position of their content on Tele Atlas maps. Developers can then search, acquire and download the content to create highly targeted applications and personalized downloads for personal and in-car navigation systems, mobile and wireless devices, Internet solutions and location-based services (LBS).  For example, a navigation device could show end-users the nearest locations of a Wi-Fi hotspot or parking spot, or an application could deliver content of specific interest to football enthusiasts in London. Read More>>

The Underlying LBS Theme from this year's CTIA Wireless - Maturation (David Wiliams, Publisher LBS Globe, April 1, 2007)
As hoped for and expected, CTIA Wireless 2007 was one if not the most exciting CTIA's for LBS in many years, if ever.  But it was not exciting in the the traditional sense, like last year when many companies made major announcements such as the Disney Mobile MVNO launch.  This year had few of those kinds of dramatic announcements, but it had something more important - strong signs of industry maturation. Read More>> 

By: David H. Williams; Publisher - LBS GLOBE; CEO - E911-LBS Consulting

Wireless location, led by location-based services has finally hit the mainstream.  Finally, and there is no turning back! End-users - businesses, government agencies, and consumers - are rapidly learning about and adopting LBS. Carriers are making the necessary strategic and financial committments, as are venture capitalists, angel investors, and other financial backers; and the wireless developer community as a whole is racing to incorporate location into ever higher-value applications.

Up until now, the focus in the LBS "community" has been in keeping LBS alive and nurturing its growth, particularly after it went on hard times in the first half of this decade, and justifiably so. Major LBS companies had to drastically refocus their efforts or be acquired to survive, and some did not. This carnage extended into the LBS support community -  including online LBS newsletters - with at least two print publications "biting the dust." The good news: the industry has now recovered, and is poised for explosive growth.

Similar to the evolution of online and print magazines covering various technologies and particularly the PC world, LBS Globe has its roots in the LBS infrastructure world, where frankly the readers were the industry "insiders." Wireless location services have now evolved to the point now to recognize in a media capacity the need of LBS purchasers and end-users for an impartial, but expert view on LBS - what are the available applications, how do they compare, what are the issues for businesses and consumers, and what issues need to be dealt with at the next level of LBS development.  LBS Globe intends on leading the way in providing this information.  We hope you enjoy it!

Dave


David H. Williams
Editor and Publisher
LBS Globe
www.LBSGlobe.com
dwilliams@LBSGlobe.com
203-423-9015

LBS Globe - THE Definitive Source of Location-Based Services Information for Purchasers and Users of LBS Applications and Technologies.