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4 C O V E R S T O R Y By Josh Newman Revolution Wireless THE WIRELESS REVOLUTION IS UPON US, ACCORDING TO MOST MEDIA AND ANALYSTS. IDC PREDICTS THAT THE NUMBER OF GLOBAL WIRELESS SUBSCRIBERS IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE FROM APPROXIMATELY 303 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS IN 1998 TO 1.1 BILLION SUB- SCRIBERS IN 2003 AND OVUM PREDICTS THAT WORLDWIDE WIRELESS REVENUE WILL INCREASE FROM APPROXIMATELY $300 BILLION IN 1999 TO $601 BILLION IN 2003. A VIEW OF THE PRESENT MARKETPLACE WILL TELL YOU THAT THE WIRELESS REVOLUTION IS LOOK- ING TO LOCATION-BASED SERVICES TO IGNITE THE WIRELESS, OR MOBILE, DATA INDUSTRY. SPRING 2001 MAPINFO MAGAZINE www.mapinfo.com/magazine Looking for Mobile Data Jump Start I L L U S T R A T I O N : B R U C I E R O S C H
The world is on the brink of mass adoption of wireless data. The big gun necessary to propel the wireless world from hype to reality is location-based services. With mobile location services, your mobile device knows where you are; it can provide all the information that is truly relevant to your current surroundings—without even being prompted. What is the best restaurant near my hotel? Has my flight been delayed while I’m on the way to the airport? How do I get to my meeting? All of these questions are easily answered with a single click, once location-based services are integrated into PDAs (personal digital assistants), Java phones, WAP phones, RIM pagers, wireless PCs and other mobile handheld devices. The promise of mobile commerce (m-commerce) has telecommunications carriers and advertisers cultivating a secondary market—hoping the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E911 mandate will open the technological window for advertisers, retailers and information services companies. And, offering hurried consumers a digital coupon for 20 percent off their morning coffee at the moment they pass by Starbucks or the neighborhood deli is a compelling location-based sales opportunity. Carriers are now working with content and service providers to reach mobile customers when and where they will be most receptive to their offers. The US FCC’s E911 initiative is designed to gradually require wireless carriers to make technology available that will guide an ambulance directly to the location of a 911 caller. Phase I of the FCC mandated E911 service was due in 1998, yet today less than 10 percent of the US wireless population has that service. Phase I was to use cell sector location technology to route the calls to a certain point and to communicate the subscriber’s identity and location to the 911 operator. Phase II is due in October and requires even more precision with which to locate a mobile user. Although the FCC has done three or four new orders since the original order, there really are no penalties in the 911 mandate. Much of the US public is amazed to learn they don’t have this service. This is changing, as the carrier’s attitude is shifting from “I’ve got to do it because it’s a FCC mandate” to “how can I make revenue from this?” Wall Street’s recognition of the value of location-based services companies has increased as that attitude has changed. Leading industry analysts estimate that carriers could see nearly $16 billion in new revenues for location-related services. The reluctance of carriers to adopt mobile location-based technologies obviously has something to do with infrastructure cost. However, another potential cost is at play— privacy. Numerous privacy groups, angered by Double- Click’s initial foray into information gathering with cookies on the Web, see location-based services on the Web as an even greater privacy invasion, since cell phones, unlike PCs, are registered to individual users and have specific user information attached to them through the registration process. Industry executives are allaying these fears by ensuring that all m-commerce offers will be exclusively opt in and personal information will never be sold. The technology necessary to accomplish location-based services comes in two basic forms. First is the GPS, or global positioning system, which is a satellite-based triangulation system that is already available and in use worldwide. By figuring the distance of your device from three separate satellites, these devices can figure your location within less than 100 feet in some cases. Of course, the trucking and fleet management industry has been using these systems for quite some time as a way to figure the best routes and most economically beneficial travel times. And the automotive industry has taken great strides recently towards making automobiles a mobile communications center, the most prominent example of which is GM’s Onstar service. Second, on the cellular side, depending on the protocol in use, the user’s general location can be figured based upon to which cell tower the phone is connecting. Then a similar triangulation system can be employed. Of course, location based services have a head start in Europe and Japan. Because of the regions’ standardization of wireless networks, it’s much easier to create new services and roll them out quickly to consumers. It is not uncommon in Europe to find a traveler downloading information about a local historical sight to a WAP phone. If the US wireless industry can overcome it’s initial hype bubble and start to deliver on the next generation of location-based services, there will come a time in the near future when cellular penetration in America will exceed that of Europe and Japan. Then, the nation that is constantly on the go will be constantly connected. For more on the wireless world, see the Winter 2001 edition of MapInfo Magazine. Josh Newman is editor of Unstrung.com. SPRING 2001 MAPINFO MAGAZINE www.mapinfo.com/magazine 5
Page 1 and 2: 6 MapInfo Delivers Today’s ‘Kil
Page 3: MapInfo M A G A Z I N E VOLUME 6, N
Page 7 and 8: ALCATEL’S iMLS LOCATION-BASED SER
Page 9 and 10: ALCATEL, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 GENI
Page 11 and 12: Take the express route to 3G revenu
Page 13 and 14: PSA Founded in 1988, PSA works hand
Page 15 and 16: Another new process added in v6.5 i
Page 17 and 18: STEP MAPBASIC RESULTS: 2 {blank win
Page 20 and 21: 20 T E C H N I C A L F E A T U R E
Page 22 and 23: NOVEMBER 12-15, 2001 RENAISSANCE OR
Page 24 and 25: oMapInfo User Groups 24 Arizona Use
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