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December 2000
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Orange selects Webraska's enabling technology to launch Europe's first location-based WAP navigation services
Lausanne, Switzerland, 20 December 2000 - Orange Switzerland, the country's leading mobile telephony operator, and Webraska, the worldwide provider of wireless navigation services and technologies, are launching location-based services for the Swiss mobile telephony market.
Orange services are available on the mobile phones screens of all Orange's WAP subscribers as of today.
While on the move, users will be able to access a database containing points of interest throughout the country in their own language (German, French, Italian, or English), including a huge selection of restaurants, hotels, car parks, and leisure facilities such as sports centres and art galleries. The service will also offer useful information such as cinema listings, the location of ATMs, chemists, and restaurants .
Orange selected Webraska's Personal Navigation API© to add Enhanced Spatial Searching functionality to locate the nearest facility based on actual time-to-destination, taking into account Switzerland's unique landscape and natural obstacles. Orange subscribers receive street-level maps surrounding their location, and obtain detailed turn-by-turn instructions with text and maps that guide them safely and easily to their selected destination. To increase the user-friendliness of these services, the mobile phone's location is automatically determined by the network and this raw location data is mediated by SignalSoft Corporation's Location Manager platform.
Webraska's Global Navigation Server™ open architecture made it easy to interface with external databases from Geomatic, Navtech and other Orange partners, and to embed wireless navigation in remote applications developed by Orange.
Orange also selected turn-key traffic and navigation applications from Webraska's Personal Navigation Suite™ to allow its subscribers to save time by obtaining optimised turn-by-turn directions from and to any destination in the country, with a choice between several means of transportation. Users will receive real-time traffic updates and maps showing road congestion around their location. Webraska's traffic and navigation services are also commercially available in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and in the United States.
"Wireless navigation is key in developing location-based 'killer-apps'", explains Thierry Dumort, Webraska's CTO. "You need the best internet-based, robust, scalable carrier-grade platform for ultra-fast routing and enhanced spatial searching, a global navigation database with real-time traffic information and public transportation, continent-wide street-level maps, automatic adaptation to the wide variety of browsers, gateways, screen sizes and resolutions, support for full turn-by-turn navigation, and open APIs for external databases, location servers and remote application developers".
"When we thought about launching Location Based Services on our portal, we decided to go directly with Webraska", declares Thomas Kohler, Head of Corporate Development Office of Orange Communications SA. "Their complete suite of turn key applications, including traffic, routing, and maps, and their powerful proximity search technology is the best we found on the market, especially when combined with the positioning capacity that is provided by our network. We are glad to offer our users such a complete range of mobile services."
"We are very proud to have been selected by Orange", added Webraska CEO Jean-Michel Durocher. "It is very exciting to see our best technology at work and to have the opportunity to team with Orange to deliver their innovative vision. We are at the beginning of a new era that offers tremendous opportunities for wireless operators, and Webraska is focusing all its energy in helping them to leverage their assets, attract and retain customers, and generate new revenues".
For more information visit: www.webraska.com
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