What a Web we weave! >BY PETER BERNSTEIN >TX Only do things that can't be done another way." Thus spoke Jeff Bezos at a recent New York breakfast. He is chief executive officer of Amazon.Com, whose Web-based book store has made him the wizard of electroni

Louis Stilp has spent much of the last few years talking to anyone in the industry who would listen about the importance of wireless 911 location technology. However, one woman recently trapped in a South Dakota blizzard did far more to enhance the profile of location technology than all of Stilp's toil.

Stilp is vice president and general manager of The Associated Group, which developed the TruePosition wireless location system. Such technology has been available for some time, but regulators acted slowly on industry pleas to require its usage, and carriers thus would not commit to deployment. This delayed vendors' manufacturing plans for location systems, and even forced a few out of the market.

Cut to Karen Nelson, her pick-up truck in deep embrace with a snow drift in the barren whiteness of a South Dakota winter. Luckily, she had her cellular phone and called 911 to be rescued. Not so luckily, rescuers could not find her because wireless networks are not equipped with the location tracking capacity now common to landline networks.

In the end, rescuers found Nelson safe after several hours without the benefit of TruePosition's time difference of arrival technology. "The CTIA asked us if we could get up there in two hours and deploy our system, but it would have taken us two days and she didn't have that much time," says Stilp. However, the story was carried on CNN, local TV newscasts and by major daily newspapers across the country. It boldly highlighted the need for wireless 911 location technology, so much so that the same type of media blitz attended the launch of TruePosition's latest field trial late last month in New Jersey.

"It's all a matter of focus," said Stilp. "Incidents like the one in South Dakota happen every week, and some get more notoriety than others. A lot of people just aren't aware how obvious the problem is.

That may change with TruePosition's latest trial. The Associated Group is deploying its system in 24 Comcast Cellular cell sites in Gloucester County, N.J., along I-295 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Over the next 90 days, everyone from major switch vendors to independent researchers will conduct drive tests to evaluate how closely the system pinpoints the origination of cellular calls. In addition, Comcast will measure network performance under the system.

The trial, which had been delayed since last fall while various steps were still being coordinated, probably will be the system's last field trial before The Associated Group begins making commercial deployment deals. "We hope this is the last trial. Now our focus is on sales, and we will ramp up our manufacturing effort to begin making this system by the hundreds," said Stilp. Though TruePosition is a base station adjunct, it does not have to be deployed on every base station in a particular area to be effective.

What remains to be seen for The Associated Group and other location system vendors is how quickly a market for the technology will develop. Neither Comcast nor the state of New Jersey has committed to the technology after the ongoing 90-day trial is over. Also, an Oct. 1, 2001, deadline for nationwide coverage of location technology has left the details of funding this massive project in question.

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