U&C Insights - November 2008

November 19, 2008 By: Janice Partyka

GPS for Handsets, Who Knew?

A tall thin man, wearing a grey suit and red tie, entered an enormous field in the heart of Chicago. Crowds, festivities, and hoopla greeted him, along with shouts of "Yes, We Can!" A momentous event was about to occur, one that was certain to be remembered for generations to come.

It was the president of Ameritech Mobile Communications on Soldier's Field that day, 25 years ago, ready to place the first commercial cellular call to the grandson of Alexander Graham Bell. Though no one seems to remember what they said, we do know that the first phone was the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, with just 30 minutes of talk time, weighing more than two pounds, and costing nearly $4,000.

You likely read articles about this anniversary, but, like me, you may have been struck by the omission of any mention of the role that GPS played in creating cellular infrastructure. Nor was GPS acknowledged for its contribution toward propelling mobile phones' popularity by enabling navigation and other location-based offerings.

GPS is used extensively to geo-tag places where coverage is good or bad, helping to determine where new towers should be built, or where adjustments should be made.

GPS' path to the handset was pushed forward initially by the U.S. Federal Communication Commission's (FCC) E9-1 1 mandate that required carriers to send the location of the handset to emergency dispatchers during a wireless 9-1-1 call. The CDMA market was thrust into GPS when Qualcomm integrated SnapTrack into their CDMA chipset and Nextel adopted the SiRF GPS solution. For a variety of reasons, U.S. GSM carriers adopted network-based location solutions but are now moving forward with GPS handsets.

When the large carriers planned deployment for E9-1-1, few thought there was a mass market for LBS. GPS was associated with defense and commercial usage, not consumer use. And the people making decisions about location were in regulatory and legal departments, not consumer product marketing.

It was 19 years ago when the first handheld GPS device appeared on the market. In 1994, the first GPS automotive navigation systems were sold in the United States. The following year, the first GPS-based vehicle recovery systems were introduced. Then, in 2003, the first nationwide, built-in map database was available to consumers. Remember all the map CDs?

I talked to Kanwar Chadha of SiRF, an industry stalwart. Two developments proved that GPS could be a profitable part of a mobile platform. Carriers, handset makers, and vehicle manufacturers were persuaded by the success of enterprise logistics, the tracking of vehicles, mobile workers, and inventory. Second, portable navigation devices showed that ordinary consumers were hungry for location products.

I asked Kanwar to pull out his crystal ball and look into the future of GPS and handsets.

"The future is a hybrid world where location is taken for granted. GPS is complemented by other satellite systems, radio signals (such as Wi-Fi and cellular), micro-electromechanical systems sensors (e.g. accelerometers and compasses), and other methods to utilize whatever assistance is necessary to extend its sensitivity," says Chadha. "Location reaches everywhere, including deep into underground parking garages and the narrow divides between tall buildings, and far into the corner of our houses."

Ubiquitous mobile location wasn't likely on the minds of the crowds on Soldier Field in 1983. They were thrilled that any phone could be portable, even if the weight would tone their arms. The spindly metal antennas that periscoped out of the handset were a mere nuisance when they frequently broke. Calls dropped frequently. And it was accepted that phones had to be charged each night, and sometimes at midday. But given all that, mobile phones were still astounding.

I have looked for a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X on eBay. I'm afraid that they've become a collector's item and I still can't afford one. No, I can't.

Regulatory Update

The FCC released its Order in the NET 911 Act implementation proceeding, which mandates that voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) providers have rights of access to "any and all capabilities necessary to provide 9-1-1 and E91-1 service from entities that own or control those capabilities." The FCC didn't require licensees to provide the last known cell location data to their roaming partners.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) just posted its NG9-1-1 Proof of Concept Test Report http://www.its.dot.gov/ng911/pdf/NG911_POCTesTReport091708.pdf. They intend to complete the final architecture and transition plan by the end of the year.