Location services development gets easier

As the clock ticks closer to the FCC's deadline for implementing location-based capabilities, the projected potential for additional revenue-earning applications seems to increase. Operators may be becoming more interested in finding applications beyond the E911 requirements to help pay for their investments in location technology.

By 2004, emergency roadside assistance applications that use location-based technologies will account for nearly $2.9 billion, according to a recent Strategis Group report. Enhanced 411 is expected to yield $1.2 billion in the same time frame, the report said.

But with the new applications come new issues, ranging from privacy concerns to battles over information ownership, which operators and vendors are beginning to address.

Last week Xypoint, a provider of network-based location products, said it will deliver a solution during the first quarter of next year that allows end users to set the parameters for access to their location information.

"We developed a solution that allows customers to control who knows their location and in what circumstance," said Ken Arneson, president and CEO of Xypoint.

When end users sign up via the Internet for a service that runs on Xypoint's platform, they can designate preferences. "They can set rules about who, when or where their location can be accessed," Arneson said.

The Xypoint solution will involve a central server that could tie together multiple location-based solutions. It can support handset-based and network-based solutions, if the operator chooses to implement both, as well as applications and other components, such as security. The server centralizes all those pieces and manages them according to the end users' preferences.

Typically, handset-based solutions have been perceived as offering easier answers to privacy issues than network-based solutions because users could turn off the location capability. But many believe the issue is the same for both handset- and location-based solution providers.

"It's more psychological for customers - the handset-based solution will sound better," said Stephan Beckert, director at The Strategis Group. "The network turnoff is less intuitive."

But handset-based location services companies believe they have an advantage in the privacy realm. "You're only located at the handset when you initiate a find-me [service], like dialing 911," said Bruce Noel, vice president of business development for SnapTrack. "You have to actively cause the phone to locate you."

The privacy issues eventually will be resolved. In the meantime, vendors are encouraging application development by making access to the information easy. SnapTrack announced last week that it will integrate its technology with Microsoft's Mobile Explorer, making SnapTrack available to users of Microsoft's microbrowser. The integration also makes it easier for application developers to create services.

Making it easier for third parties to write applications creates more issues for operators, though. "There's a competitive battle in terms of who is going to get the customer to identify with them," Noel said. Some options are becoming available that allow third parties to access location information without paying the carrier for the information. US Wireless, for example, is setting up a service bureau to sell location information to carriers that may not want to implement their own location platforms, Beckert said. US Wireless could sell that information to third parties, which could market location-based applications directly to end customers, using the carrier only for the pipe. "Some of the carriers haven't realized there is someone else out there who can do it," Noel said.

Operators can retain control of that location information, though, by implementing certain location solutions. SignalSoft's solution, for example, does not allow third parties direct access to the information. "We're trying to provide network operators with a way to manage that information. We're not about going around the carrier," said Eric McCabe, vice president of marketing for SignalSoft.

SignalSoft recently joined the Wireless Application Protocol Forum to contribute to the formation of location standards. The effort will set standards about where location data will be kept and how to access it.

Operators also can aggressively pursue relationships with developers to offer valuable services. Xypoint builds relationships with third-party developers that build to its platform. "Part of the objective we're trying to meet is to enable mobile commerce without carriers having to do one-off deals," Arneson said.