Location based technology and services : a business plan and in-depth industry analysis

Abstract

In the United States, the forthcoming E911 Phase II Mandate specifies that cellular service providers must be able to provide caller location to Public Safety Answering Points (i.e. 911 operators). The mandate specifies that a caller's location must be pinpointed within a radius of 125 meters for all wireless 911 calls by October 1, 2001, spurring development of various position determining technologies. A byproduct of this federal requirement is that an entire new family of mobile services - location based services is being created. This technological innovation in wireless is expected to reap benefits to wireless carriers, location-based service providers and infrastructure enablers. Additional benefits from mass-market adoption will include increases in airtime usage, demand for more location-based applications along with the transformation of Internet and Intranet data into mobile content. This thesis does an in-depth industry analysis of the mobile positioning and location-based technology industries, addressing topics such as the S-curve, value chain, network externalities, entry strategies, and technology diffusion. Building off of this analysis, a business plan for a location-based application is presented.