Location Based Services Making A Humble Comeback, Declares ABI Research

Location Based Services (LBS) - a pre-bubble technology once touted as the next "killer app" is poised to make a comeback - albeit without the flash and hype. So-called E112 or E911 legislation - named for the emergency phone numbers - requires the ability to pinpoint the location of a cell phone placing an emergency call in Europe and North America. According to technology market research firm ABI Research, this legislation, plus commercial success in Asia, is slowly bringing new life to LBS.Stalling adoption of LBS are technical challenges in identifying cell phone callers. Many methods exist, none perfect. Common approaches include using the cellular infrastructure to triangulate a callers' location, sometimes in conjunction with Global Position System (GPS) satellites but a key limitation of GPS is that the signals do not penetrate buildings and relying solely on the wireless network to triangulate a signal can be costly.Solutions from companies like SnapTrack and Global Locate provide equipment to combine GPS data with cellular infrastructure data to pinpoint a location.
Full Article:http://www.abiresearch.com/reports/LBS.html