Sprint can help track the kids

location based services

Way back in the day, say yesterday, we corralled the kids to help us find our lost car keys or misplaced mobile phones.

Now our phones can help us find the kids.

The first phone-based “geofencing” service for consumers will be unwrapped by Sp rint Nextel today.

The service, called Sprint Family Locator, will use Global Positioning System technology to let parents see where their phone-toting children are and, perhaps more importantly, where they’re not.

It’s the latest in a new class of location-based services that wireless companies are expected to offer over the next couple of years.

Think cell phones that flash you a coupon to stop by for a free Coke when you approach a restaurant. Think phones that will send you a text message when a “dating match” shows up at a bar across the street. Think phones that flash a warning if there’s a speed trap or traffic jam somewhere ahead.

Sprint decided to launch the Family Locator service first, betting that it will be a hit with busy parents and their overextended kids. The company is partnering with California-based WaveMarket to provide the service.

The $10-a-month service works on many current Sprint handsets and doesn’t require any new gear.

Using a small application downloaded to a parent’s phone, parents can log in and “ping” their child’s phone to see where they are. The parent application runs on 18 existing Sprint and Nextel phones.

The service shows the child’s location on a map on the parent’s phone, pinpointing him or her within yards if the phone is outside. It’s less accurate inside, picking up the location within a block or two instead of feet.

Perhaps more importantly for some parents, Family Locator offers the first consumer-oriented geofencing service. The parent gets an e-mail or text message if a child isn’t where he’s supposed to be at a certain time.

“If they’re supposed to be at Grandma’s at 4, and they’re not there, I want to know, and I want to know what’s going on,” said Dan Gilmartin, Sprint’s manager of product marketing for location-based services.

While location-based services are becoming well established in business — trucking firms use them to track vehicles, repair firms use them to dispatch workmen, and companies with mobile work forces even use them to make sure their employees stay under the speed limit — privacy issues have led the wireless companies to tread more softly in the consumer market.

Sprint is trying to defuse concerns that “Big Brother is watching” — or in this case Big Mother — by sending the child a text message each time the phone is located.

“A lot of people talk about stalking, tracking, monitoring,” Gilmartin said. “We’re about open and honest communication between a parent and child, or even an older child and an elderly parent.”

Because the child must use a “safety word” provided by the parent to enable the service on his or her phone, “it can’t happen anonymously,” Gilmartin said. “We’re not interested in that business.”

The parent’s phone is password-protected, so the service also can’t be used to track down a child if a phone is lost or stolen.

While Sprint is the first into the wireless geofencing business, other companies aren’t far behind. Verizon Wireless is expected to launch a similar service next month called Verizon Chaperone.

And Disney announced last week that it will launch a new family wireless service this summer on Sprint’s network. It also will have a child-finder service.

All of the systems use the Global Positioning System chip included in many wireless phones, as well as the wireless networks themselves, to find the phones. While the GPS technology was designed to let emergency dispatchers locate a caller, analysts believe the technology could trigger big business.

Ken Hyers, principal analyst for mobile wireless with ABI Research, said child-finder-type services may well lead the pack of new location-based services.

“It’s probably one of the most robust of the consumer services out there,” Hyers said. “It speaks to the hands-on parent. All of us are a little bit nervous about where the children are.”

Although wireless prices continue to climb as consumers add services to their plans, Hyers said consumers may be more open to spending on child-finder services.

“A service that allows you to track your kid for $10 a month?” Hyers said. “That seems like a bargain to have that peace of mind.”

David Chamberlain, principal analyst for wireless applications for In-Stat, another research firm, said there’s growth potential for other location services as well.

“If we don’t get really upset and start screaming about the privacy issues, there are some really interesting applications that can be developed,” Chamberlain said. Location services could become a “killer app” for some consumers, he said.

Services like Family Locator might be enough to convince some consumers to move from one wireless service to another, Chamberlain said.

Sprint has been aggressively rolling out consumer location-based services for nine months.

Last year, the company began offering voice-prompted navigation services from Garmin International of Olathe and TeleNav of Santa Clara, Calif. More recently, Sprint launched lower-priced text navigation services from MapQuest and Rand McNally. And earlier this year, it launched a GPS-based application for runners, walkers and cyclists called BiM Active.

Other wireless companies are joining in as well. Verizon Wireless launched VZ Navigator, a voice-prompted navigation system, earlier this year.

Sprint doesn’t provide numbers on the sale of individual products. But Gilmartin said he is “fairly satisfied with where we are.”

Gilmartin conceded that because Sprint has been a market leader in phone-based GPS services, the company is plowing new ground.

“It’s a double-edged sword being the leader in the market,” he said.