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Europe’s first location-based WAP navigation services[December 20th 2000] Orange
Switzerland and Webraska are launching location-based services for the Swiss
mobile telephony market. Orange services are available on the mobile phones
screens of all Orange's WAP subscribers as of Dec 20th. While on the move, users will be able to access a database containing points of interest throughout the country in their own language (German, French, Italian, or English), including a huge selection of restaurants, hotels, car parks, and leisure facilities such as sports centres and art galleries. The service will also offer useful information such as cinema listings, the location of ATMs, chemists, and restaurants . Orange selected Webraska's Personal Navigation API to add Enhanced Spatial Searching functionality to locate the nearest facility based on actual time-to-destination, taking into account Switzerland’s unique landscape and natural obstacles. Orange subscribers receive street-level maps surrounding their location, and obtain detailed turn-by-turn instructions with text and maps that guide them safely and easily to their selected destination. To increase the user-friendliness of these services, the mobile phone’s location is automatically determined by the network and this raw location data is mediated by SignalSoft Corporation’s Location Manager platform. Webraska’s Global Navigation Server open architecture
made it easy to interface with external databases from Geomatic, Navtech and
other Orange partners, and to embed wireless navigation in remote applications
developed by Orange. Orange also selected turn-key traffic and navigation
applications from Webraska’s Personal Navigation Suite to allow its
subscribers to save time by obtaining optimised turn-by-turn directions from and
to any destination in the country, with a choice between several means of
transportation. Users will receive real-time traffic updates and maps showing
road congestion around their location. Webraska’s
traffic and navigation services are also commercially available in France,
Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and in the United States. “Wireless navigation is key in developing location-based
‘killer-apps’”, explains Thierry Dumort, Webraska’s CTO. “You need the
best internet-based, robust, scalable carrier-grade platform for ultra-fast
routing and enhanced spatial searching, a global navigation database with
real-time traffic information and public transportation, continent-wide
street-level maps, automatic adaptation to
the wide variety of browsers, gateways, screen sizes and resolutions, support
for full turn-by-turn navigation, and open APIs for external databases, location
servers and remote application developers”. “When we
thought about launching Location Based Services on our portal, we decided to go
directly with Webraska", declares Thomas Kohler, Head of Corporate
Development Office of Orange Communications SA. "Their complete suite of
turn key applications, including traffic, routing, and maps, and their powerful
proximity search technology is the best we found on the market, especially when
combined with the positioning capacity that is provided by our network. We are
glad to offer our users such a complete range of mobile services.” “We are very proud to have been selected by Orange",
added Webraska CEO Jean-Michel Durocher. “It is very exciting to see our best
technology at work and to have the opportunity to team with Orange to deliver
their innovative vision. We are at the beginning of a new era that offers
tremendous opportunities for wireless operators, and Webraska is focusing all
its energy in helping them to leverage their assets, attract and retain
customers, and generate new revenues”. About Orange Switzerland Orange Communications S.A. is owned by France
Telecom/Orange UK (85 per cent),
Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (10 per
cent) and Swissphone AG (5 per
cent). On 29 May 1998, Orange Communications S.A. received a licence to set up
and operate a GSM 1800 MHz mobile communications network and launched its
services on 29 June 1999. Orange’s corporate vision is that wirefree services
will become the preferred personal communications tool for all communication
needs. The company’s mission is
to become the leading provider of high quality wirefree communications services
to the people of Switzerland. After 15 months in the market, Orange has over
700,000 customers. About Webraska Webraska is the worldwide provider of wireless navigation,
mapping and traffic information services
and technologies for telecom operators and car manufacturers. Turning mobile devices into worldwide personal navigation
systems, Webraska's revolutionary IbDN (Internet-based Distributed Navigation)
patented technology and its Personal Navigation Suite of valued-added services
are solving mobile users needs everyday, increasing revenues, customer loyalty
and brand recognition for leading service providers around the world, including
SFR, Vizzavi, KPN, Belgacom, Airtel, Orange, ADAC and VoiceStream. Helping carriers leverage their UMTS, Wireless Internet and
Location-Technology assets, Webraska also offers the Personal Navigation API
that allows application developers to launch, in a matter of hours,
anywhere in most of Europe, North America and increasingly in the Asia-Pacific
region, 'location & navigation-enabled' wireless applications
(location-based services, m-commerce, games, city guides, fleet management,
mobile Extranet, etc.). It is
available directly to all developers via Webraska's ASP Centres, and via
licensees of the Global Navigation Server platform and Global Navigation
Database. |
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