OXFORD, United Kingdom-Despite the formation last September of the Location Interoperability Forum (LIF), which is dedicated to developing global interoperability between mobile positioning systems, technology developers are complaining that nothing has happened.
The forum, which was launched by Nokia Corp., L.M. Ericsson and Motorola Inc., said applications based up LIF guidelines were due to become available early this year. European mobile operators, however, are looking to the LIF for guidance on what technology to adopt in light of a lack of a regulatory directive.
The situation is not helped, according to supporters, by the increasing doubts that U.S. mobile operators will launch E-911 location services by the Oct. 1 deadline. The Federal Communications Commission recently acknowledged that all major mobile operators had finally submitted their technology proposals, but location technology developers have said that no orders have been placed so far.
