AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands-Location-based services have struggled to find their feet in Europe. Mobile data has taken a long time to deliver on the technology, applications and price points to meet customer expectations. The reality is that mobile data has a long way to go. (Page impressions represent about 1 percent of service revenues, and premium SMS represents only 20 percent of SMS revenues.)
So where does the LBS industry stand? IBC’s LBS 2003 event in Amsterdam gives us some insight. It seems the technology wars are dying down. U.K.-based Cambridge Positioning Systems emphasized how its Matrix technology could enhance and speed up Asynchronous-GPS accuracy calculations. U.S.-based TruePosition Inc. emphasized how its network-orientated TDOA solution has been formally standardized by 3GPP for GSM and UMTS networks as well as allowing in-market, legacy handsets to take advantage of LBS. SnapTrack Inc. gave a number of examples of how A-GPS handsets are performing in Japan and Korea.
Operators, interestingly enough, were starting to give hints that cell identification is certainly not enough, and even enhanced cell ID may lack the desired accuracy for future LBS. Nevertheless operators such as Vodafone Group (United Kingdom), Sonic Duo (Russia) and One (Austria) gave examples of consumer-orientated LBS that are in place and making money.
However, a number of downstream implementation issues have still to be resolved.
Operators will need to do an awful lot more than simply pop up an opt-in confidentiality clause to protect customers who use location-based services, said Mendelson Law of Canada. A number of technological, organizational and legal structures need to be put in place.
Meanwhile, carriers want to be able to take advantage of customers who may want to use LBS services when roaming. In the European Union, 90 million people take their mobiles on holiday/business. Nine hundred million roaming mobile calls are made each year.
The EU mandate on cellular operator/emergency authority E112 compliance is supposed to be in place by July. At that time, operators will be required to hand over to the emergency authorities the approximate location of emergency mobile-call end users. While the operators, emergency services and European Commission are anxious to avoid the teething problems that have plagued the U.S. E911 rollout, there is a sense that E112 is being brushed under the carpet within Europe. The danger is a fragmented, incoherent, costly rollout that does not serve the interests of emergency mobile-phone call users, the authorities nor the operators. In late 2004, the European Commission will review E112 compliance, and the commission may lose some of its humor if progress has been wanting and impose much tougher compliance requirements on cellular operators.
As Jonathan Klinger from Webraska stressed, location-based services represent a powerful value proposition. They can make content and applications more pertinent and useful, but instead of them leading the mobile-data pack of services, they are more likely to play an essential, supporting role in enabling fun games, locating the nearest gas station or saving someone’s life by ensuring that the emergency services get there five minutes earlier.
