PROVIDERS TAKE Baby Steps - Automatic location identification

Telecommunications, June, 2001 by Ted McKenna

Such applications indicate that location-based technology is not just about consumer cell phones. "So much of the way we think about mobile services has to do with carrying around a flip phone," says Probe Research's Chamberlain. "That is a dangerous preconception. It closes off many greater capabilities out there for people using these networks."

In the United States, though, E911 remains the key to wide adoption of location technology. Verizon Wireless spokesperson Andrea Linsky says her company is "focused on meeting the public service initiatives and, frankly, isn't looking at introducing any of the location-based commercial services in the near future. We're just now getting our customers to use the wireless Internet services that are available to them today."

Of the 150 million calls made to 911 in 2000, 45 million were made from wireless phones, according to the National Emergency Number Association. The FCC E911 mandate assures success for at least some of the technology providers and software makers competing in the market, including Airbiquity, Qualcomm, LocatioNet, Radix Technologies, SignalSoft, SIRF and Gravitate. Exactly which ones thrive will become clearer as the deadlines get closer.

Ted McKenna is a staff editor at Telecommunications[R] (tmckenna@telecommagazine.com)

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