At 01:02 PM 5/30/2001 -0700, ganns.com wrote:
>--- Dave Emery <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > In fact jammed handsets would stick out
> > like sore thumbs and probably ensure special attention...
>
>Similar to how using crypto does, which is why it is better that more
>people do so. A jamming device that could be easily disabled would
>be preferred, so that when your are in your car, hanging off a cliff
>in Arizona, you can be located.
New York - Qualcomm believes its GPS (Global Positioning
System)-integrated cellular chipset solution will prove to be the
best technology for future location based services.
Qualcomm GPS technology integrates a GPS subsystem in a
handset placing most of the location-determination functionality
inside the phone with small changes required to wireless
infrastructure. Qualcomm CDMA Technologies senior product manager
Arnold Gum claim its gpsOne technology offers operators better
performance and lower cost, power and size advantages than
competing GPS location technologies.
Outside the USA, the development of positioning systems has
been driven by commercial considerations. In the US location-based
technologies are poised to be of increasing relevance over the
next few months as operators struggle to meet the US Federal
Communications Commission E911 mandate. By October 1 the FCC
mandate requires US wireless carriers to automatically pinpoint
the location of emergency 911 calls made from cell phones to
within 125 meters.
Currently, 911 calls made from cell phones are usually sent
to one of 155 public-safety answer points (PSAP). By mandating
wireless operators to provide the location of 911 calls to the
PSAPs the FCC hopes to improve emergency response times. PSAPs
have struggled to cope with the influx of calls from wireless
phones and the lack of information such devices provide compared
to landline phones.
Accurate location information also promises to kick start
latent wireless commercial opportunities in the US. Location-based
applications are considered to be one of the cornerstones upon
which operators hope to drive data-driven traffic revenues across
their networks. Adding positioning capabilities operators can
offer their subscribers new and attractive services. Positioning
systems can also help operators optimize networks to trace
unsuccessful calls adapting networks to match calling patterns as
well as professional and private subscriber commercial services.
It is debatable how much location based services could be
worth to operators and developers. Optimists such as
telecommunications analysis firm Strategis Group estimates that
the location-based services market will be worth $4bn by 2004 in
the US alone. Worldwide, revenue should reach more than $30bn in
the same period, it believes. Pessimists such as the Shosteck
Group think the technology is still immature and the revenue
generating opportunity limited.
Qualcomm, which makes the chips used in CDMA phones, claims
its location accuracy is between 5-10 meters in a 'clear sky'
environment. In surburban indoor environments accuracy is 20
meters, states Qualcomm VP for Federal government Affairs Jonas
Neihardt.. The FCC handset requirements demand 150 meter accuracy
95% of the time, 50 meter accuracy 67% of the time.
Gum also claims gpsOne can acquire a position in under a
second outdoors while competitors can take up to 10 minutes for
the first fix.
Qualcomm's hybrid GPS handset network solution competes with
an alternative technology called radio triangulation or
network-driven GPS-based scheme. The triangulation method uses
three or more receiving sites to monitor a call and compare signal
strength, time of arrival, and distance or angle of arrival of a
signal from a handset. Such a solution requires changes to each
base station on a network - a potentially expensive exercise, says
Gum.
Questions remain about GPS - not least because of technical
issues involved in integrating it into a cell phone, such as size,
cost, and power consumption - but Qualcomm's Gum said Qualcomm's
current MSM 3300 silicon technology and the improvement of GPS
cores make it possible for GPS to share such resources as the CPU
and memory already inside a cell phone. The bill of materials for
separate GPS components - such as baseband, RF and memory chips -
could cost between $20-40 per module, compared with its gpsOne
integrated solution that costs $2-3. Qualcomm's next integrated
chipset solution including gpsOne is due in late 2001 and will
address multiple air interfaces including GSM and W-CDMA, he said.
Denso and Samsung are already integrating the technology
into its phones.
Meanwhile in the US wireless carriers are understood to be
still struggling with which GPS technology solution to adopt. Last
we heard AT&T Wireless Group had not yet chosen which technology
it would deploy, VoiceStream was wavering having initially decided
to employ triangulation while Sprint PCS said it would use a
handset system.
Last year over 120,000 wireless 911 calls were made in the
US.
