As carriers and companies worldwide rush to offer all kinds of location-based services, one consulting firm is warning that location-based services may not live up to the wireless industry’s expectations.
Telecommunications and new media advisor firm Analysys released a report cautioning that location-based services may not be the industry’s “killer app,” but rather just another part of burgeoning market.
“While location services will be an essential part of future mobile packages, they are not killer applications,” said Julie Robson, the report’s lead author.
Location companies beg to differ. Just last week, two location-service companies announced sales.
WebTech Wireless Inc., a global vehicle tracking and location services provider, partnered with ArabTel to create a tracking network. The deal covers an initial 1,500 vehicle tracking units and location services for network operator ArabTel’s commercial fleet and private vehicle owner customers.
“We are confident that our partnership will enable us to be a dominant player in this new location-service market,” said Hisham Akbar, ArabTel’s deputy general manager. “We are looking forward to offering a range of innovative services to our mobile fleet customers.”
Philippine mobile operator Globe Telecom also showed its support for the growing location-services industry. It selected interWave Communications International Ltd. to deploy a wireless GSM network product for three vehicle-based solutions in an effort to provide emergency and temporary cellular coverage. InterWave plans to alleviate network congestion in Manila and provide extra coverage and network capacity.
Location service companies like interWave and WebTech will help increase the subscriber base for mobile-location services to 680 million users in 2006, Analysys predicts. According to the firm’s report, “Mobile Location Services and Technologies,” the industry will grow from $2 billion at the end of 2002 to more than $18 billion by 2006.
Revenue growth will come from traffic stimulation, charges for positioning the user and m-commerce charges, the report states.
However, profits generated from mobile-location services won’t be the driving force in the wireless industry, the firm asserts.
“The real significance lies in the contribution of location services to enhancing wireless data and information services, and to the growth of a global m-commerce market,” said Analysys’ Robson.
