Swedish Network to Launch Location Based Rescue Service

Europolitan Vodafone and SOS Alarm have together developed a new mobile alarm service. It will initially only be offered to companies and organisations whose staff work alone in exposed conditions, such as professional drivers, social workers or forestry workers. In the future, however, the service will be available to private consumers, such as women exposed to threats of violence.

The service is based on a GSM subscription from Europolitan Vodafone, an alarm subscription from SOS Alarm and a mobile telephone with a built-in GPS function used to locate the individual in trouble. The service has been tested over the summer and is due for launching in November and offers a positioning system with an accuracy of 1 meter. To our knowledge, only Benefon manufacture a GSM phone that incorporates a GPS receiver, so presumably this service will use their phones."

Posted to the site on 25th September 2001