QUALCOMM
Incorporated announced that more than five million gpsOne(TM)-enabled
devices are now in commercial use in Japan, South Korea and the United
States. With major deployments on CDMA networks in Asia and the United
States, QUALCOMM's gpsOne technology is the world's most widely deployed
personal location system for mobile handsets. The high-accuracy position
location solution is based on Assisted Global Positioning System (A-GPS)
technology invented by QUALCOMM, and is proving to be a leading catalyst
for consumer adoption of wireless data services,
enhancing carrier revenue.
Carriers are offering
a broad range of popular gpsOne-enabled location-based services, including
child-safety and personal-navigation
applications, friend-finder services and work-flow management/asset-management
services. Several carriers in the United States are selling gpsOne-enabled
handsets to meet the Federal Communications Commission Enhanced 911
(E911)
wireless safety obligations, and may also choose to offer additional
location-enabled services. QUALCOMM's gpsOne technology is the
highest-performance E911 wireless location technology in commercial
use today,
with proven average accuracies of 5 meters to 50 meters in most urban
and
rural environments, and industry-leading performance inside buildings
and
vehicles.
"We have seen
tremendous growth in terms of gpsOne deployments and
services over the last year -- a 50-fold increase in gpsOne terminals
sold
into the market, with more than 30 different terminals now available,"
said
Johan Lodenius, senior vice president of marketing and product management
for
QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. "We are seeing that carriers offering
gpsOne-enabled wireless data services, combined with other offerings,
are
experiencing a significant increase in wireless data ARPU and a reduction
in
churn. The popularity of precision consumer-location services, plus
the
launch of a variety of enterprise services, demonstrates the flexibility
and
value of the gpsOne technology."
The gpsOne capabilities
are implemented in handsets through QUALCOMM's
Mobile Station Modem (MSM(TM)) chipsets and system software, and in
networks
through SnapTrack's SnapSmart(TM) location server software. Initial
deployments of gpsOne specialized personal security devices began in
Japan in
April 2001, followed by commercial handsets in Japan, South Korea and
the
United States.
QUALCOMM's gpsOne
solution, featuring SnapTrack(R) technology, offers
robust data availability under the most challenging conditions, whether
in
concrete-and-steel high-rises, convention centers, shopping malls or
urban
canyons. Using a hybrid approach that utilizes signals from both the
Global
Positioning System (GPS) satellite constellation and CDMA cell sites,
the
gpsOne solution enhances location services availability, expands terrain
coverage, accelerates the location determination process and provides
better
accuracy for callers, whether during emergency situations or while using
GPS-enabled commercial applications. The gpsOne solution supports both
synchronous and asynchronous networks.
