Emergency Calling Could Change Location Service Landscape

Knowing the exact location of a mobile phone is about to become a whole lot more important in Europe and it's not so that marketers can more accurately target advertising at the handsets. New legislation is set to ensure location-based services get a leg up.

A new EU (European Union) Safety Directive which is expected later this year will require member countries to ensure cellphone network operators can accurately determine the location of a caller to emergency call centre operators.

It seems likely, according to a new start-up called BlueSky Positioning, that this will be a catalyst for a wider range of location based services.

The legislation, if it comes into being could give member countries just 18 months to implement laws requiring operators to identify the precise location of callers to the E-112 emergency service. Potentially to an accuracy level of just a few metres, says Blue Sky.

Similar to the E-911 legislation in the US, the new law is designed to improve emergency services' reaction and response times due to improved location accuracy and therefore increase levels of public safety. However, over 50 per cent of emergency calls in the EU are made from mobile phones - and current network-based positioning technologies on the market cannot provide the degree of accuracy required.

Enabling high-accuracy location technology could be an enormous challenge for operators - there are 500 million mobile phone users in the EU. To comply with this legislation would mean a massive handset upgrade programme - a hugely expensive and complicated task.

BlueSky hopes to be positioned to help mobile operators meet any such emergency call legislation with a system that incorporates a highly accurate GPS receiver and proprietary antenna built into the SIM card used in a mobile phone, rather than into the phone itself.

Such an approach provides the opportunity to deploy precise, legally-mandated positioning capability quickly and cost-effectively across all mobile handsets, says the company.

BlueSky Positioning has developed patent-pending technology and processes to embed Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS) capability in the SIM card (USIM in the case of 3G handsets), with minimal impact on signal strength and battery life. This means that operators need only replace the SIM cards, not the phones themselves - a far more manageable solution.

The A-GPS SIM can also enable the delivery of a whole new set of location-based services to the consumer without compromising their privacy. Operators can quickly build critical mass and benefit from the full revenue potential of accuracy-based LBS applications such as navigation, tracking, routing, personal security, and zone-based billing.

Risto Savolainen, BlueSky Positioning CEO, said "The LBS market has promised much and delivered little. This strengthened EU legislation to enhance public safety services will also catalyse the LBS market by putting the means of access into the hands of every user. Working with SIM card manufacturers, BlueSky Positioning enables mobile operators to embed the service in every consumer's SIM and USIM card, without compromising the existing levels of card security and privacy protection.

"A new handset costs anywhere between €100 and €500 plus. A replacement (U)SIM is a tiny fraction of the cost. It's a much smaller price to pay for better safety and the opportunity for a whole new range of applications."

Source: mobilised.com