Mobile network operator Orange this week launched location-based services.
Orange, the UK’s fastest-growing mobile network operator, this week launched a system turning mobile phones into navigation devices. The idea is to offer users products tailored to their location, so they can find the nearest ATM, post office or hospital, with the phone network determining their current position. The service is WAP-based: the user connects to the Orange WAP portal and then goes to a search page to locate what they need.
Mobile location is expected to be one of the major value-added services in wireless technology over the next few years. Companies like Orange have realized that it is a cost-effective way of maximizing revenue: it’s much cheaper to make your existing customers pay more than to acquire new ones.
Yet Orange’s current level of service is basic. All it offers is this Yellow Pages-like information system, which is just a part of one out of four major growth areas that Datamonitor expects to see. Applications including security, navigation, billing for services and even fleet management will all play a major role in the mLocation future. However, most of these will require better technology than Orange’s system provides.
Currently, users can be tracked by expensive GPS devices or by cell identification (determining which mobile transmitter they are nearest to). Orange’s system, using conventional phones, is based on cell identification, which means that users can only be located over a fairly wide area. While this is useful for being told the nearest post offices or pub, it is less useful for fleet management or security, or even navigation. Knowing where you’re within five miles of isn’t much use when you’re lost in a town.
In the future, as the price of technology falls, solutions integrating GPS, cell ID and other systems will become viable, making location-based mobile systems functional and vitally important for individuals, logistics providers and emergency services. Orange’s current system is cheap to implement, will prove useful for some users and will help build the company’s revenues – but it’s hardly even a taste of what is to come.
