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Find love and pizzas while avoiding pollen

Topping subscriber wish lists are location-based services (LBS), which open up a world of possibilities, from fun and games to outright lifesavers. 3G and new handsets are fuelling their growth.

March 22, 2005

Finding new friends or just a sumptuous pizza, reassuring worried parents that their children have arrived safely at school or warning people with allergies they are entering a pollen-infested park – there are probably few mobile applications as wide in scope, useful and entertaining to mobile subscribers as location-based services (LBS).

 

New research from Ericsson Consumer Lab, which surveyed subscribers in 10 different countries, shows that two LBS applications are among the top-three most desirable new mobile services. On top of the wish list were positioning services that enable navigation through downloadable maps, while friend-finder services came in third.

Jonas Nordström, Sales Support Manager at Ericsson, says that after a somewhat slow start to market take-up, several factors are expected to boost growth of LBS in 2005. "Handsets with color displays and Java support open up new, attractive location-based services, for example by combining MMS and LBS, while the ongoing rollout of 3G networks prompts operators to offer services that are new and exciting," he says. "In addition, EU regulations will require mobile operators to implement emergency call positioning support in their networks."

 

Business users have long provided a lucrative segment for LBS and Nordström testifies to its appeal to the transport and logistics industry. "The enterprise user segment is very promising and offers great revenue potential," he says. "Courier firms and other transport companies use LBS for efficient fleet management, by positioning the driver's mobile phone, the dispatch center can easily track vehicles on web-based maps. LBS save them money by making sure the right staff member is in the right place at the right time.

 

New technology in the networks also leads to new possibilities. One example is spatial triggers. This functionality enables the user to set certain trigger criteria, such as their mobile phone entering or leaving a certain pre-defined area, or when two mobile phones are within a certain distance of each other. "As an example, the mobile network can, via the positioning system, automatically notify parents via SMS when their kids reach school," Nordström says. "It also enables new presence-based dating and advertisement services."

 

Ericsson was the first vendor to offer a complete end-to-end LBS solution. "We're now world leading with 40 percent of the global market, and so far more than 50 operators have implemented our solution," Nordström says.

 

Ericsson's end-to-end solution consists of the Mobile Positioning System (MPS), LBS middleware, applications and advisory services. The solution works on GSM and WCDMA networks, and can be deployed in any multi-vendor network. MPS is the heart of the solution and delivers the positioning coordinates of the phone to the applications residing on the LBS middleware. The LBS middleware is used to make it easier for operators to interact with third-party providers. It simplifies and speeds up the rollout of new applications by serving as a link between an operator's support system (provisioning and charging) and new applications.

 

LBS involving geographical positioning are leading candidates for operators wanting to stand out and boost revenues. Nordström cites one example in which an operator in Central Europe managed to win over a big chunk of subscribers from the competition, mainly by offering a new friend-finder service, which quickly became very popular.

 

Co-branding with other enterprises is a way for operators to trim costs in developing and offering new and unique LBS applications. German operator D2, for example, teamed up with a pharmaceutical company to develop an LBS-based pollen-alert system, which notifies subscribers suffering from a pollen allergy when they are approaching a high-pollen environment.

 

To make it easier for operators to capitalize on LBS applications, Ericsson has developed the LBS Booster. "It is a support program to help operators with the LBS launch and boost the LBS traffic for operators that have already launched LBS," Nordström explains. "We start by reviewing consumer segments and market opportunities, then develop business cases and finally support deployment."