Location Aware Mobile Application Services

Mobile location based applications are about to become mainstream. Over the next few years, as more of us spend more time online, mobile phones and portable digital applicances will supplant stationary desktop systems as our preferred link to the Internet, corporate intranets, and portal services. The mobile telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. More than 80 million people own cellular handsets in the United States today, and that number is expected to grow to over 120 million by 2001. If we look at the level of mobile penetration worldwide, there are were over 207 million mobile subscribers in 1998. This number is expected to increase to 605 million subscribers worldwide. What these number reveals is that the growth of mobile penetration is exceeding the growth of PC computing. Moroever, covergence of Internet computing (centralized portals delivering rich content over IP networks) with mobile telecommunications (delivery of subscription-based digital content over wireless IP networks) lays the groundwork for a new class of services and devices that can enable mobile location services.

Major online services like America Online, Yahoo, and Microsoft MSN are adapting their offerings for mobile location-based services. Others are enhancing their online presence by providing location services to both their online and wireless customers:

MapQuest.com lets you look up addresses and find travel directions using wireless Palm VII; AirFlash.com can send information based on mobile location to find the nearest gas station; Visa.com helps you locate a nearby ATM; Moviephone provides movie time at nearby theaters; and Weather Channel gives you forcast based on location. These high useage of these sites is evidence of their growing popularity by wireless users. Mobile services providers can deliver much more than simply a pipe to access information on the Internet. An important type of service that can be supported by a location-based services infrastructure is the ability to determine the location and track the movement of wireless subscriber. For example, services such as roadside assistance, emergency E-911 response, navigation services, and “establishment locators”.

The introduction of FCC regulations to supply comprehensive location information on all system users for emergency situations has sparked an explosive growth location based capability. By October 2001, providers will need to have the capability to provide information to the emergency number (911) answering point that enables location of the mobile user within approximately 125 meters (410 ft) 67 percent of the time. While government regulation and emergency assistance applications are the driving forces behind the development and widespread deployment of this new generation of location services, the ability to determine the location of users within a wireless system has tremendous commercial application.