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Top Ten Trend Locating You
"A federal mandate states all cell phones must be able to be located by an emergency responder during a 911 call. As a result, all of the U.S. carriers in were forced to put GPS chips in their cell phones or find another way to locate the handset by the end of 2005." Hmmmmm, rather than kabitz in the debate forums-
Date: 1/20/2006 11:34:40 AM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 3346 times Verizon to Help Track Kids
The wireless carrier plans a child-tracking service in May.
January 19, 2006
Verizon Wireless plans to launch a child-tracking service called Verizon Chaperone for parents in May as one of several location-based services the carrier will roll out before summer, Autodesk, the company that created the software, said Thursday.
The No. 2 U.S. mobile phone company has deliberated over launching its location-based services, which use a GPS chip in cell phones to locate the devices, for months because of worries over privacy concerns, said Joe Astroth, Autodesk’s vice president of Location Based Services.
Verizon Wireless even kept its plans for the child tracking service quiet when it started selling the “Migo,” a kid-friendly cell phone made by LG, which will be used with the Verizon Chaperone service.
The Chaperone service will cost between $10 and $15 per month, and parents will be able to locate the Migo phone within several yards using the parent’s cell phone or an Internet site, Mr. Astroth said. The parent will also be able to receive a text message if the child leaves a designated area in a service called “geo-fencing.”
‘They had a pack of lawyers working on this.’
-Joe Astroth,
Autodesk
Verizon Wireless also plans to launch a navigation service called VZ Navigator that delivers turn-by-turn driving directions, Mr. Astroth said.
Verizon Wireless spokesman Jeffery Nelson confirmed a child-tracking service is in the company’s long-term plans, but declined to comment further on that or the navigation service.
Mr. Astroth said Verizon Wireless hopes to launch six to eight additional location-based services over the Autodesk platform in the coming months. Autodesk also powers Nextel’s and Sprint’s location-based services.
Verizon Wireless’ move into location-based consumer applications is the largest push in the U.S. by a major carrier to date, and adds weight to the years of buzz over such services.
Carriers in Japan and South Korea already deliver many services, but concerns over privacy, as well as worries over a lack of demand, have previously kept Verizon and Cingular from launching services (see The Promise of LBS).
Sprint Nextel already offers location-based services for businesses enabling employers to track employees working in the field. But 90 percent of the company’s 350,000 subscribers to LBS are business customers.
Federal Mandate
A federal mandate states all cell phones must be able to be located by an emergency responder during a 911 call. As a result, all of the U.S. carriers in were forced to put GPS chips in their cell phones or find another way to locate the handset by the end of 2005.
It was a mandate that cost the carriers billions, and Verizon Wireless’ launch of location-based services is a way to recoup those costs. Mr. Astroth said Verizon Wirless has been worried about the privacy and security concerns raised by location-based services. “They had a pack of lawyers working on this,” said Mr. Astroth.
Autodesk has been working on the service with Verizon for 18 months, making sure that the software is very careful about authentication and that the tracking service can be turned off and on.
Mr. Astroth said Verizon Wireless’ Chaperone will have three options that a parent can choose for the service: “always track,” “ask to track,” and “deny tracking service.” Different options can also be set to coincide with days of the week, or times of the day.
If the phone is lost, the tracking service can easily be turned off through an Internet site.
Fears that the system could be abused are a real concern to carriers. Hackers could crack into a database that contains location information, or persons looking to harm a child might find a way to use the service to locate the child.
LBS Market
The South Korean LBS market is the most advanced in the world, and SK Telecom is already estimated to have 12 million to 15 million GPS phones with 150 location-based services. The carrier already has a service like Verizon’s called I-Kids.
But LBS has not caught on in the Europe and the U.S. for various technical and consumer-demand reasons.
In Europe, LBS was so over-hyped over the past few years that analysts predicted that the European market for such services would be worth anywhere between $13 billion and $33 billion by 2005. The estimate missed the mark, and Europe’s LBS market size is closer to the size of the U.S. market, which represented $981 million in 2005, according to the research firm ABI.
However, ABI says that number will grow to $8 billion in the U.S. by 2010. The Asia-Pacific region currently accounts for 55 percent of the world’s subscribers, compared to North America’s 5 percent. Yet, analysts expect the U.S. to represent a greater percentage of LBS subscribers over the next few years.
The U.S. is a new market for LBS. But because of the federal 911 mandate and embedded GPS chips, many U.S. cell phones in 2006 will likely have the LBS option (see Top Ten Trend Locating You).
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