Location-Based Services…Anytime, Anywhere…
By: Kelly Green

Technology is Making Us Safer, Maybe

Saving lives, saving time and offering new revenue opportunities to carriers are just a few of the services offered to customers through location-based computing. Location-based services are the services that provide information to wireless device users based on their physical location. These services have the ability to let the mobile device user obtain maps, directions, traffic reports; locate friends, nearby businesses, restaurants or landmarks.  Entertainment-based applications are expected to be added to the list soon as well. A service that many people have heard advertisements for, which falls into the category of location-based services, is Onstar (http://www.onstar.com). OnStar, offered by a unit of General Motors, is an application, which provides directions and responds to emergencies. Location-based services are a key part of their product. 

Location-based services have been a hot topic for several years, fueled by the FCC E911 mandate. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated that service providers, by December 31, 2005, be able to automatically locate anyone making an emergency 911 call. Carriers must be able to locate callers to an accuracy of 50 to 100 meters, depending on the technology. Even with the FCC mandate in place, many carriers are still in the process of deploying a location tracking solution resulting in many Americans without access to this mandated service. In addition to the build out of the location-finding infrastructure, is the fact that currently only a small amount of wireless users have location-enabled phones. It will take some time for these to populate the market, as carriers' LBS efforts increase.

Once the location-finding infrastructure and standards are in place, experts say, the U.S. market for location-based services will take off. Market research firms are predicting that the number of location-based services users will increase enormously in the next few years. Services will provide consumers with information that improve lives and saves time. Easy navigation around traffic accidents will be a value-added product. This technology can help shoppers, hungry execs, but more importantly will enable firefighters and other emergency personnel to find victims trapped in burning buildings. In the future, some network will always know where you are, what you’re looking for, and where you need to end up. 

Sounds great, but do consumers really want their location known at all times? A number of legislative efforts are already geared at addressing FCC E911 related privacy concerns. Research has begun on finding ways to offer consumers the ability to turn off location finding so the user has a say in when and where their whereabouts will be tracked. Many new technologies such as location-based services raise privacy issues and concerns however, in the long run, many feel the good that will come from location-aware computing will overshadow the bad.