Location, location, location. AT&T Inc. announced today it has deployed assisted GPS technology
(A-GPS) within its wireless network to enhance existing and planned
location-based services (LBS) used with A-GPS capable devices.
The
company also announced it will launch two new navigation applications
in the coming weeks, MapQuest Navigator and AAA Mobile navigator. The
new applications add to the company's AT&T Navigator and AT&T
Navigator Global Edition offerings, underscoring its focus on providing
superior navigation tools and customer choice. The A-GPS deployment
primes the network for further expansion this year in the LBS category,
including planned launches of a location-enabled social networking
service and a family-oriented service along with industry-leading
privacy controls Network Deployment
A-GPS technology gives capable devices a
significant jump-start on identifying the user's initial location. GPS
devices search satellites each time they are turned on to determine
starting latitude and longitude, a process that previously took as long
as several minutes. With A-GPS, AT&T's network speeds up that query
by identifying nearby cell sites, helping the device more quickly hone
in on the appropriate satellites. Assisted in this way, A-GPS capable
devices can identify a user's initial location in fewer than 20
seconds, delivering greater convenience to customers using LBS.
More Choice in Navigation
Within weeks, AT&T will launch new
downloadable applications that give its customers more ways to use
compatible mobile phones as navigation devices.
"Using a mobile phone for navigation is
affordable, convenient and intuitive because it eliminates the need for
consumers to buy or carry yet another gadget," said Mark Collins, vice
president of Consumer Products for AT&T's wireless unit. "And
unlike traditional navigation devices, which can be hard to transport
from car to car or difficult to use while walking or riding a bike, a
mobile phone is always on hand or in hand."
MapQuest Navigator, powered by Telmap,
gives AT&T customers access to turn-by-turn, voice-guided driving
and walking directions, 3-D moving maps, 16 million points of interest
from MapQuest's database, quick route recalculation for missed turns,
real-time traffic alerts, gas prices, gas station locations and AOL's
City's Best restaurant and venue ratings.
AT&T Navigator, powered by TeleNav,
has been highly successful since its rollout, and LBS has ranked among
the fastest-growing categories of applications for AT&T. AT&T
Navigator provides turn-by-turn driving directions, full-color moving
maps, a fuel finder feature that lets customers identify the cheapest
nearby gas and access to YELLOWPAGES.COM's database of millions of
business locations.
Poised for Future Growth in LBS and Social Networking
AT&T's deployment of A-GPS paves the way for
new offers from AT&T in the LBS space, which include plans for a
family-oriented service and a location-enabled social networking
service.
Future network enhancements will also allow users
of non-GPS devices to enjoy location-based services such as local
search tools from YELLOWPAGES.COM.
Commitment to Privacy and Parental Controls
In conjunction with new offerings in the LBS
category, AT&T will continue to build out a comprehensive suite of
parental and privacy controls. For example, AT&T is developing
best-in-class tools to enable parents to manage how their children can
share their location. For services sold by AT&T, the tools can be
applied on a phone-by-phone and application-by-application basis and
will launch alongside the first applications enabling users to share
their location with others.
Details on future offers will be announced at a later date. For more information on AT&T Navigator, visit www.att.com/navigator.
For details on MapQuest Navigator, visit http://wireless.mapquest.com/mapquest-navigator-att .
For more information on AAA Mobile, visit www.AAA.com/AAAmobile.