Cellphone GPS services find their way into market

location based services

Boston Globe, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Apr. 19--The Global Positioning System devices that can help people navigate an unfamiliar city or find the nearest pizza joint are moving off the dashboard and into the cellphone.

Cellphones with location technology are already a hit in Japan and South Korea. In the United States, millions of cellphones already contain GPS technology by order of the federal government, which sought to ensure that emergency workers could locate cellphone users who place emergency 911 calls.



Now, three of the four leading cellphone providers are beginning to widely market phones that include location-based services, or LBS, which allow subscribers with GPS-capable phones to navigate from wherever they are to wherever they want to go with the push of a few buttons.

Sprint Nextel sold its first GPS telephone in 2002 but marketed it only for use by truckers and other mobile businesspeople. "All of the phones will have GPS capability in the future," said John Redman, spokesman for Sprint Nextel Corp. of Reston, Va., the nation's third-largest cellular carrier, which offers 30 GPS-capable phones.

Meanwhile, the most-popular cellphone carrier, Cingular, introduced its first navigation phone in October. In January, Verizon Wireless introduced a new Motorola Inc. GPS handset with software that can generate driving instructions for a traveler in any part of the United States served by Verizon. The company has since added a second GPS phone made by LG Electronics of South Korea. It's all a part of Verizon's plan to eventually introduce all its customers to location-based services.

"By the end of the year, the majority of new handsets will support LBS services," said Lee Daniels, director of business products and solutions at Verizon Wireless.

T-Mobile USA, owned by Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, is the only national cellular provider that has no GPS phone offering. A spokesman for T-Mobile said the company is still evaluating the market.

GPS handsets won't cost any more than most other wireless phones. For example, Verizon's Motorola GPS phone will cost $79.95 if the customer signs up for a two-year service plan. The GPS service costs $9.95 a month. For subscribers who only need the service occasionally -- during a vacation, for example -- Verizon also offers a one-day subscription for $2.95.

The phones offer the same kinds of services found in larger GPS units. The on-screen maps are small, but readable. And the phones offer spoken turn-by-turn driving instructions, piped through a loudspeaker so the driver can keep both hands on the wheel.

Verizon GPS users won't have to subscribe to a data plan, because the GPS information is sent over Verizon's standard cellular network. That can make the company's service cheaper than Sprint Nextel's offering. That company requires a separate data service subscription, priced between $10 and $23 a month, in addition to a standard cellular plan. Still, the Sprint Nextel plan would be cheaper for those who frequently use GPS, because Verizon users pay for airtime when they access the GPS system.

Mark Lowenstein, managing director of Mobile Ecosystem, a Boston wireless consulting firm, said that the phone companies were slow to provide GPS because they had to upgrade their networks to ensure that their location services would work properly and gauge how much consumers would pay for the service.

But Lowenstein said that cell companies woke up to the rising popularity of GPS devices sold to hikers and motorists. "Those things have been selling like crazy," said Lowenstein.

Telematics Research Group Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn., estimates that Americans bought 2.62 million GPS units last year, and that the number will jump to 22.2 million in 2011. In addition, a survey just released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 47 percent of Americans want navigation technology built into their next cellphones

A cellphone with GPS boasts some technical advantages over standard GPS units. It's often difficult to get an accurate GPS fix in urban areas, where tall buildings can block satellite transmissions. But cellphones use a system called "assisted GPS," which combines satellite signals with radio transmissions from local cell towers. Since the system knows the exact location of each cell tower, this data can be combined with satellite data to deliver an accurate location fix, even when satellite signals are weak.

The popular GPS devices used in cars usually include digital maps that are displayed on a screen. These maps are often designed for drivers, not pedestrians. Verizon's GPS phone has a "pedestrian mode," which lets it show alternate routes available to people traveling on foot. Maps become obsolete, so GPS users must purchase regular software updates. But cellphone GPS maps are stored at the network, and updated regularly at no additional cost to users.

On the other hand, people who travel in remote areas can't rely on cellphone GPS, because the service won't work when the phone is out of range of the cellular network.

Verizon's Daniels said his company is careful to protect the user's privacy. The phone's GPS system is switched off unless the user deliberately activates it. In addition, Verizon discards any location data sent by the phone after using it to calculate driving directions. Neither does Verizon relay the user's location to third parties, like merchants who might want to bombard travelers with advertisements.

Daniels said Verizon might consider selling GPS phones as a child-safety service. By giving their children GPS phones, nervous parents would be able to keep track of their kids. Last week, Sprint Nextel launched a cellphone service tailored to children and parents that features GPS tracking of each child's phone.

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