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The origin of LBS goes back to 1999 when the US government mandated mobile phone operators to provide information about the location of the phone users who needed emergency services. This led to the service providers and handset vendors working together to allow the emergency service to know the exact location of the distress callers.

Location based services (LBS) have assumed greater importance at a time when mobile operators are looking at increasing their ARPU. What started as a capability of service providers to locate handsets through their cell sites has now become a full blown mobile value added service globally.

While the cell site technology was far from accurate, the success of GPS technology has given a new dimension to LBS. It is also no longer the monopoly of the service provider to leverage the technology. Internet players like Google have managed to get into the LBS space by allowing users to download mapping applications onto to their devices, and paring the current GPS-coordinates with their presence on the network. It in fact launched a service called Google Latitude to let its users allow their friends to track their whereabouts. It works with both CellID and GPS.

In fact, PC users can now also see their friends through an Internet connection. Social networking has added another opportunity for the LBS market. Nokia acquired Plazes and offers a service which is similar to Googles Latitude. Several start-ups have come up with similar applications that can be dowloaded.

Mobile phone vendors like Nokia offer mapping services independent of service providers. To promote the service, Nokia offers one week of free navigation license. Airtel launched its location based service in 2003, which was based on SMS and was called Around Me. Similar services were also launched by Hutch (Now Vodafone) around the same time and was called Hutch4Help.

Through this service, subscribers were supposed to send an SMS to know about utility services. In fact, BSNL in 2007 started offering personalized services to its customers for real-time fleet and asset management, friend finder, location based advertising and chatting services with help from technology provided by Telenity.

Most of the CDMA players in India offer fleet management services, wherein trucks are fitted with CDMA devices, and their integration with the back-end allows the company to monitor vehicle movement, and do a better provisioning and scheduling of their fleet.

Assisted GPS is the latest technology innovation that allows better accuracy as close as five to ten meters, with better coverage indoor than the standalone GPS technology, apart from being more power efficient. Handset manufacturers are trying to bring down the cost of this technology.

Privacy Challenges
Concerns about privacy continue to be the biggest challenge for large-scale adoption of LBS globally. Lack of awareness and confusion on whether the service is free or paid, have also added to the problem. Poor quality of maps is also a hurdle, more so in India where landmark based mapping is in vogue.

Another problem is the lack of any standards which allow development of applications that can work seamlessly on all handsets. The success of LBS in India depends on the pricing of GPS-enabled handsets and navigation devices.

According to Gartner, there would be 300 mn subscribers for LBS by 2011, and revenue would exceed $8 bn by that time. According to ABI Research, the LBS market is slated to reach $3.3 bn by 2013. WiFi LBS market alone, according to IDC, will be of nearly $1 bn by 2011, and is expected to drive incremental WLAN deployments.

The potential of LBS in India is huge, considering that service providers are adding around 9 mn new users every month. Targeted and opt-in based LBS can offset the problems operators are facing due to Do Not Call Registry.

Sudesh Prasad
sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in

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