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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: slacker711 who wrote (44489)	2/7/2005 8:39:02 AM
From: slacker711	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 196533

Steve Olson is president of Blue Cove Interactive, a San Diego wireless technology company. In January, online map site MapQuest began using Blue Cove's real-time traffic information service under the brand name MapQuest Traffic. signonsandiego.com What is Blue Cove Interactive? Blue Cove was founded in 1999 as a technology company providing services to the telecom industry. We began to look at the travel space and cell phone products for traveling people. What kinds of problems do they have? What kind of information do they need? We're looking at services that will give travelers information about movie times, ATM locations, the closest bathroom and the price of gas at nearby stations. Advertisement How does MapQuest Traffic work? MapQuest Traffic is a branded version of our service, which is also available through Verizon and regional phone companies in other parts of the country. Across the country, 91 metropolitan areas provide traffic information. Of those, 31 provide traffic-flow information. Subscribers can view maps on their phones. Highways are color-coded green, yellow and red to show traffic flow. Information is available about incidents affecting traffic. Does the system automatically know which maps to display? We've demonstrated the ability to use the GPS information from a phone to automatically display a subscriber's location. At the moment, we don't have access to that information. When the wireless carriers release the GPS information, we'll be able to do that. Right now, the service will open the map from the last area you were in. If you're in a different area, you would go to a regional map, move the cursor to your location and click on it to get the local map. What types of phones can use the service? It works on about 30 different models of Verizon phones. Phones have to have a color screen to display the maps, of course. It works on any phone using Qualcomm's BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) operating system. It also works with phones using the Java 2 Mobile Edition operating system. It doesn't work with Microsoft Smartphone software yet, but it will in the future. Does it only work on the Verizon network in California? In February, it will be available on the Sprint network. We're talking to other carriers, but we can't name them yet. – JONATHAN SIDENER