Portugal's TMN has ordered the SmartZone Geospatial Platform from Webraska Mobile Technologies, to power location-enabled applications. TMN is the mobile subsidiary of Portugal Telecom. TMN's customers can currently search for information such as restaurant reviews on the portal, but once Webraska's technology is in place, they will also be able to download routes and maps that will take them street-by-street to their destination.
One disadvantage of the service is that there will no longer be any excuse for arriving late or getting lost en-route to meet friends!
Initially, the technology will be deployed for TMN's newly launched consumer mobile portal, i9 (pronounced i-nove), with consumers having access to the first applications by the beginning of November. The operator is also planning to use Webraska's successful geospatial middleware to support its involvement in UEFA 2004 (European Football Championship), scheduled to take place in Portugal next summer.
The SmartZone Geospatial Platform provides applications with access to a comprehensive range of core functions, such as geo-coding, reverse geo-coding, mapping, routing and spatial searching. Applications can access platforms hosted by Webraska or on customers' own sites, as preferred.
The SmartZone Geospatial Platform provides the core functionality behind the location-based services offerings of major wireless carriers and service providers across the globe, such as Orange, Vodafone, TIM, e-plus, Bell Mobility, Sensis (a subsidiary of Telstra) and 02 Germany. It is also being used to power mapping and travel web sites, wireless navigation applications for smartphones and PDAs, and a host of fleet management, tracking and security services in the enterprise market space."
Posted to the site on 25th September 2003
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/9791.php