Sprint to Deploy Life-Saving Wireless Assisted GPS
System by QUALCOMM For E911 Wireless Callers
World's Most Accurate Wireless Phone Location System Provides Groundwork For Future Location-based Applications and Safety Features
KANSAS CITY, Mo., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Sprint PCS (NYSE: PCS - news), the nation's fastest-growing, largest
all-digital, all-PCS nationwide wireless network, today announced it will be using a handset-based GPS (Global Positioning System) solution from QUALCOMM Inc. (Nasdaq: QCOM - news) to fulfill the requirements of the FCC E911 Phase II mandate.
QUALCOMM's sophisticated gpsOne(TM) solution, which features SnapTrack's Wireless Assisted GPS(TM), has proven to be the world's most accurate, all- environment means of pinpointing callers who make emergency calls from their mobile phones. QUALCOMM's solution will enable Sprint PCS customers to automatically send their position to emergency
dispatchers with high precision from almost anywhere they can place a call.
``The safety of our customers is paramount,'' said Charles Levine, Sprint PCS chief operating officer. ``As the only
nationwide carrier with one technology -- CDMA -- at one frequency, our track record shows that we're able to quickly
bring life-enhancing solutions, such as Sprint PCS Wireless Web and Voice Command, to our subscribers. Now, with this
life-saving solution, we'll also have a springboard to build future location-based services.''
For carriers such as Sprint PCS that choose a handset solution, the FCC Phase II mandate requires that by Oct. 1, 2001, 67 percent of position-enabled handsets must be locatable to within 50 meters. Under controlled trial conditions earlier this year, Sprint PCS was able to locate this percentage of test calls to less than 30 meters -- more than 20 meters better than the FCC mandate. Sprint PCS will begin offering the wireless assisted GPS-capable handsets in the second half of 2001.
``Having a single all-digital CDMA technology based on a single radio frequency gives us an advantage over our
competitors,'' said Levine. ``This allows us to deploy a single location technology, whereas many of our competitors must deploy a more expensive and less accurate network overlay solution to accommodate multiple technologies operating at multiple frequencies. In addition, having selected CDMA five years ago has given us the added benefit of GPS timing, which we use to synchronize our calls today, and will provide us with better accuracy for E911 Phase II.''
``The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International is extremely pleased that Sprint PCS has taken the lead in complying not only with the letter, but with the spirit of the FCC's wireless public safety mandate,'' said Lyle Gallagher, president of APCO International. ``APCO has been a firm supporter of the FCC's E911 efforts to address a key safety issue facing the public today -- how to respond to, and safeguard, the more than 100,000 mobile phone users who call emergency dispatchers every day. Sprint PCS is to be commended for being the first out of the box to deploy the kind of highly accurate location system the public safety community needs to most effectively respond to callers in need. As they say
in the emergency industry, 'time is tissue,' and precise location information will guide rescuers right to the caller in trouble, rather than forcing them to waste precious time searching for them. This is really a positive step for the calling public and the public safety community, and we hope to see other major carriers take equally positive steps to protect lives and property.''
In addition to providing emergency E911 position location fixes for callers using the handsets, this gpsOne solution enables a whole range of value-added location-based consumer and enterprise services for wireless subscribers that are
privacy-friendly. Subscribers will be able to choose services such as mobile directory assistance -- including locating ATMs, restaurants and movies -- personal navigation, location-dependent advertising, improved roadside assistance and enhanced vehicle fleet management. According to Levine, ``Those services will enable our subscribers across the country to access important location-sensitive information and even save money on products and services in nearby stores.''
``QUALCOMM is excited to provide the world's first fully integrated position location solution for CDMA,'' said Don
Schrock, president of QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. ``We are committed to providing the most advanced and useful
technologies possible to meet the changing demands of the wireless CDMA market. The gpsOne solution, incorporating
SnapTrack technology, will enable Sprint PCS and their handset manufacturers to provide safety and other location-based services that will enhance the quality of life for consumers throughout the U.S.''
The gpsOne system, tightly integrated into the QUALCOMM MSM3300(TM) Mobile Station Modem (MSM) chipset and
built into the Sprint PCS phones that will be deployed in the second half of 2001, improves conventional GPS by combining information from both GPS satellites and CDMA-based wireless networks to locate a wireless CDMA handset. While traditional GPS receivers may take several minutes to provide a location fix, the gpsOne solution generally locates callers within a few seconds. The technology allows callers to be located in a wide range of challenging call environments where normal GPS receivers will not work, including inside houses and moving vehicles, under heavy foliage and in urban street canyons, usually within 30 meters.
QUALCOMM's MSM3300 solution features the highest level of wireless modem integration, incorporating not only the
gpsOne and SnapTrack position location technology, but also Bluetooth wireless connectivity capabilities, Moving Pictures Experts Group Layer-3 (MP3) digital music support and other multimedia functions.
The Forrester Group has called location-based services the ``killer app'' for mobile data applications and services, and believes that thin-client, location-relevant services will dominate the mobile e-commerce and consumer wireless data markets. Some market studies predict that the location-based services industry may be worth as much as $32 billion annually by 2005.
During the next year, Sprint PCS will work with its major network vendors to test and install the necessary network
infrastructure to support the handsets. These new network systems will calculate a 9-1-1 caller's position and route the calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Points.
GPS is a system of satellites that orbit the Earth and provide positioning and timing information based on measurements taken between two or more of these satellites and receivers on Earth. With the assistance of the new network systems being deployed by Sprint PCS, the receiver inside the handset is able to collect ranging information from these satellite signals as well as other information inherent in the CDMA system that Sprint PCS uses.
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