A-GPS Technology from Global Locate Featured in Sharp’s Advanced 3G Handset

location based services

Privately held Global Locate announced that its chipset and software are featured in Vodafone’s latest 3G handset; the Vodafone 904SH from Sharp Corporation.
The Vodafone 904SH offers customers a variety of Location Based Services enabled by integrated A-GPS technology. Domestic operator Vodafone started selling the Vodafone 904SH handset in Japan in April 2006. The Vodafone 904SH is Sharp’s first A-GPS enabled 3G handset and features a full resolution VGA display. The Global Locate A-GPS solution inside the handset performs fast position fixes and provides high position accuracy for users. The result is superior map resolution and GPS performance during the many different LBS applications supported by the operator. The Vodafone 904SH handset supports the operator’s specific Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) protocol using A-GPS software developed by Global Locate and Sharp.“With this novel 3G handset, Sharp sets new A-GPS performance benchmarks for time to fix and position accuracy in handset based GPS applications. The Vodafone 904SH delivers industry leading time and accuracy performance which are important for meeting the high expectations of the Japanese market,” said Richard Najarian, Global Locate’s Vice President of Sales and Business Development. “We are pleased to be partnered with Sharp as the A-GPS technology supplier in their newest generation of handsets.”The Vodafone 904SH supports WCDMA and GSM/GPRS air interface standards, permitting customers to access LBS applications through international roaming outside of the domestic Japan network.