SnapTrack Inc., headquartered in San Jose, Calif., is attracting attention from some industry heavyweights with its Global Positioning System-based method for providing location-based services, including enhanced 911 service.
Seven Code Division Multiple Access carriers are taking a serious look at what SnapTrack has to offer. AirTouch Communications Inc., GTE Wireless Inc., Ameritech Cellular, PrimeCo Personal Communications L.P., U S West Wireless, Bell Mobility and Sprint Spectrum L.P. formed a test group to demonstrate and evaluate the technological feasibility, performance and cost of using SnapTrack’s system for wireless handset location.
The Federal Communications Commission’s Phase II E911 mandate requires that carriers be able to identify the latitude and longitude of mobile units making 911 calls to within a radius of no more than 125 meters with success rates of about 67 percent by Oct. 1, 2001.
SnapTrack’s Cellular-Aided GPS system is a handset-based solution that works with wireless networks to improve on some of GPS’ traditional shortfalls in locating handsets. According to Steve Poizner, president and chief executive officer of the company, conventional GPS systems require a minimally obstructed view of the sky, have long acquisition times, drain power from handsets and are susceptible to multipath interference.
SnapTrack’s system minimizes acquisition times and improves accuracy by determining a general location using information from the wireless network and then pinpointing locations using the GPS system. SnapTrack’s system also increases the handset’s sensitivity to GPS signals so it can pick up on those signals inside buildings where ordinary GPS systems would not work.
The company, which introduced itself to the industry last week, has been quietly working on its technology for more than two years. It owns three patents and has applications for 30 more.
The system would require carriers to add software at a central location, and handsets must be outfitted with GPS capability. The system appeals to carriers, said Poizner, because they aren’t required to incur huge costs up front for a network-based solution that requires retrofitting each cell site. Costs with handset-based solutions, he said, are incurred over time and can benefit from decreasing silicon costs and better technology.
In addition, SnapTrack’s software works with the handset’s own digital signal processing chip with few other hardware additions. The company expects the cost for adding the system to digital handsets initially to be between $5 and $10 per unit in high volume.
Opponents of handset-based location solutions say those types of solutions neglect the installed subscriber base. But Poizner said it is an installed base of users, not an installed base of handsets, and handset turnover figures suggest a large portion of subscribers could be covered by a handset-based solution within a few years of deployment. The company noted data that indicates at the end of this year the wireless industry will support a total of 71 million wireless subscribers after 16 years, but within the last four years alone the industry has shipped more than 80 million wireless phones. The company also noted that focus group results indicate subscribers are willing to upgrade handsets or switch carriers in order to get location technology for safety and security.
Poizner pointed to privacy as a key issue in the location debate. Some network-based location companies say their ability to follow the movements of a handset provides a better tool for emergency crews and dispatchers.
But SnapTrack believes subscribers and the government will not stand for the “surveillance” of wireless subscribers. GPS solutions can be implemented so that a location is determined only when a user dials 911 or requests a location fix be made. The system can be implemented differently to enable tracking if desired, said the company.
SnapTrack has conducted field trials in the San Francisco Bay area, Denver, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan. System tests were done in both indoor and outdoor environments and moving around in a vehicle without an externally mounted GPS antenna. Results of the field tests indicate the system can locate a handset to between 4 meters and 84 meters, with the most accurate reading outdoors and the least accurate in a glass and steel high-rise building.
