Location-based Services Fundamentals and Operation

Chapter 13. LBS – The Next Generation

The first generation of LBSs went into operation at the beginning of the new millennium. At that time, market analysts saw them as killer applications for the emerging 3G networks and predicted tremendous growth rates and revenues for network operators and service providers offering these services. However, very soon it turned out that LBSs were not that "next big thing" after the success story of GSM and the unexpected hype of the rudimentary SMS. Rather, LBSs were and still are often understood as a niche market for "techies" who use them to find nearby restaurants or ATMs.

So, what are the reasons for the moderate success of the first generation LBS? The following list presents a number of reasons compiled for this book from literature as well as from talks with operators and LBS providers (i.e., this list is not found in official market analyses or representative surveys):

• Inaccurate positioning technology. Most of today's LBSs depend on Cell-Id positioning, which, as explained in Chapter 8, is easy and cheap to implement, but delivers only very inaccurate position fixes with large variances. More accurate positioning technologies like E-OTD or A-GPS are not deployed by most operators, unless they are required by law to do so, for example, to offer enhanced emergency services like E-911. The reason for the insufficient implementation of advanced positioning results from the fact that in recent years most operators have tied up capital and ...