Sprint offers family tracking service

Sprint is taking a page from one of its MVNOs' books, announcing today that the carrier will be offering the family tracking service it is enabling for Disney Mobile over its own Sprint and Nextel services.

Sprint is deploying WaveMarket’s location-based services suite to power a tracking service for families that will allow individual members to track up to four phone numbers via GPS, whether they be spouses, children or grandparents. Like the Disney service announced last week at CTIA’s Wireless 2006, the locator functions are intertwined with other voice and data services on Sprint’s deck. Family member locations can be tracked on an interactive map, which details street addresses and nearby landmarks. Parents can set alerts tied to time and location: for instance, an alert can be sent each day notifying a parent if his or her child arrived at school on time. The service can also compile historical reports on a family member’s activities, and the service can be used to instantly initiate calls or text messages.

Sprint is launching the service today, beating to the market its MVNO partner Disney, which won’t have commercial service until June. But despite the similarities between the two locator services, Disney’s appears to be more comprehensive, combining extensive permissions and communications tools with tracking in its family portal. Walt Disney Co. surprised the industry last week when it unveiled its self-branded MVNO. While the announcement was expected, Disney focused on its family services rather than on Disney content as many expected.

Though Disney hasn’t revealed any pricing for its family portal services, Sprint said it would offer its locator package for $10 a month for a family plan of four users—basically $2.50 a person. Sprint is also making it available on a wide variety of handsets, not limiting the package to its Power Vision data phones like many of its new applications. Sprint said Family Locator will be initially available on 17 handsets and will be available for over-the-air download. All of Sprint’s new phones have been GPS enabled since 2001, when it adopted a GPS strategy to meet E-911 regulations.