OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Sprint Nextel Corp. announced that it will help parents locate their children through a downloadable Family Locator service that utilizes Global Positioning System technology in handsets.
The service sneaks into the market ahead of mobile virtual network operator Disney Mobile’s locator service, which was among the various parental controls announced by the MVNO at last week’s CTIA Wireless 2006 conference. Disney Mobile plans to start selling service in June utilizing Sprint Nextel’s CDMA network.
The Sprint Nextel locator service is available for download on 17 handset models and can be used to locate 30 GPS-enabled handsets on the Sprint Nextel CDMA and iDEN networks. Up to four phone numbers can be registered for $10 a month, with unlimited location requests and 100 text messages to each child’s phone.
According to Sprint Nextel, parents activate the service using a “safety word” used by the parent and child during the registration process, “to ensure permissions have been granted by both parties,” the carrier said. Permission to locate the child’s phone also can be given to others. When a parent makes a location request via phone or personal computer, the location is displayed on an interactive map along with a street address and nearby landmarks. The parent can then contact the child, and the child is sent a text message every time his or her location is provided. Parents or guardians also can set alerts so that they are notified when a child arrives at a specific location at a designated time, such as “whether a child has arrived at school by 8:15 a.m. each day,” Sprint Nextel noted.
At the CTIA conference, Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Officer Denny Strigl also indicated that his company was working on family-friendly services for its subscribers, similar to the features announced by Disney Mobile. Alltel Corp. recently announced the release of a free content filter for mobile Web browsing and chat rooms so parents can set controls on what their children are allowed to access via their cellular phones.
