SpatialNews Press Release

Operators Are Lost on The Road To Location Based Revenues Says BWCS Report

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15 March 2002 Ledbury, UK: Mobile location-based services will generate just US$3.7 billion by 2006 according to a new report from leading wireless analysts BWCS. Mobile Location Based Services: Where's The Revenue? pierces the myth that mobile operators can rely on consumer LBS applications to drive up mobile data usage. Services such as 'Where's My Nearest ATM?' will not generate significant medium-term revenues. Instead operators should concentrate on services focused on personal safety, security and transport.

Report co-author Peter Kingsland said: "Many operators are clinging to the hope that adding a location element to mobile internet services will revive flagging ARPUs. But once again they are focused on the technology rather than the design of popular applications. The current crop of LBS will generate only a minimal increase in airtime revenues."

"Taking 'Where's My Nearest?' services as an example, unless these are really accurate, fast and easy to use, experience shows that most subscribers will simply not bother to access them. Existing WAP and SMS-based location services offer a clunky and cumbersome user experience." Added Kingsland.



Mobile Location Based Services: Where's The Revenue identifies five key factors that BWCS believes will prevent mobile location-based services from generating significant revenues until 2006 and beyond. These factors are:

Widespread antipathy to mobile advertising.

Kingsland said: "In talking to the major players in the LBS sector we have found them to be almost unanimous in the view that location-based services will require the types of data speeds and devices promised by 3G in order to achieve mass-market acceptance. In the meantime subscribers can only look forward to low-accuracy, click-intensive offerings, which in our view will require excessive input and patience on the part of the user to be truly successful."

Mobile Location Based Services: Where's The Revenue? argues that the major short and medium-term LBS revenue opportunities lie in the provision of high- accuracy tracking and navigation services to businesses and consumers and in location-enabling corporate applications such as sales force automation and CRM.

About Mobile Location Based Services: Where's The Revenue?

Mobile operators are increasingly looking to the real estate motto "location, location and location" for their inspiration. The basic business case for mobile location-based services is a simple and compelling one: People communicating on the move require services tailored to their geographical location and mobile networks can already provide basic positioning information. But can the industry turn this to its advantage? What services do consumers and corporate users really want and how much are they prepared to pay for them? Is there really a market for this type of service?

BWCS addresses the many as yet unanswered questions hanging over these potential services:

Who are the main players in the LBS value chain?

Why will subscribers use mobile location-based services and more importantly will they pay for them?

When will operators deploy enhanced positioning solutions such as E-OTD and A- GPS?

How will the introduction of 2.5G and 3G services affect the take-up of location- based services?

Mobile Location Based Services: Where's The Revenue? is available to purchase online from £995 at: http://www.bwcs.com/link_rep10.html

For further information on this report please call BWCS on +44 (0)1531 634326 or e-mail eileen.fisher@bwcs.com

About BWCS

BWCS Ltd produces a range of expert-authored reports and handbooks for the telecoms industry. These cover specialist areas such as telecoms law as well as wireless technologies such as wireless application protocol, wireless LANs and strategic issues such as the use of wireless in the enterprise and MVNOs. Further information on BWCS can be found on our website at http://www.bwcs.com

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