Location Based Services Spending in 2008 Tops $1.6 Billion

The worldwide market for location-based telecommunication services is expected to exceed US$1.6 billion in 2008 as an ever increasing number of cellular and other wireless carriers provide customized services based upon a location-awareness of their end-users. According to a new market research study from The Insight Research Corporation, location-based telecommunication services are most popular in European and Mid-East countries, where they provide wireless subscribers with tailored information based upon their current physical location.

The study notes that consumers of mobile telecommunications services are adopting location based services along with other IP-enabled services such as presence based services, video telephony, fixed-mobile convergence, file sharing, and streaming services.

"In the early 1990s the use of global positioning systems with wireless telecommunications was restricted to military applications," says Robert Rosenberg, Insight Research. "Now the application is commonplace, with applications that range from automobile navigation systems to mothers using the technology to keep track of their children based on cell phone location," Rosenberg concluded.

Posted to the site on 11th November 2008