Regardless of who’s right or wrong, one thing is certain: In the not-too-distant future, Location Based Services, or LBS, will become as ubiquitous as cell phones are today. And the new technology is expected to change the way we do business, interact with each other and navigate through our daily lives.
“Location Based Services are the new face of the wireless Internet,” says T. John Kim, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Illinois.
Kim, along with U. of I. postdoctoral fellow Sung-Gheel Jang, developed the protocol for the international standard for Geographic Information Systems, described by the U. of I. professor as “the backbone” of LBS. Earlier this year, the standard created by Kim and Jang was adopted and published by the International Organization for Standardization as ISO 19134.
Kim said LBS, introduced on cell phones in Korea and Japan, and just becoming available in the U.S., function through a combination of GIS; information, positioning, and Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) technologies; and the Internet.
“LBS combine hardware devices, wireless communication networks, geographic information and software applications that provide location-related guidance for customers,” Kim said. “It differs from mobile position determination systems such as Global Positioning Systems (GPS) in that Location Based Services provide much broader, application-oriented location services.”
While cars or hand-held electronic devices equipped with GPS may be useful when trying to get from one place to another, LBS go beyond providing routes and directions, functioning much the same way as a hotel concierge.
“For instance,” Kim said, “if it’s my wife’s birthday, and on my way home from the office I need to pick up a birthday cake and a dozen roses, I would want to know not only where is the nearest bakery and floral shop, but where is the cheapest – or the right – place to find these things that I want.”
The technology can be adapted for a wide range of other functions, he said, ranging from relaying locations of people requiring emergency assistance to first responders to providing alerts about traffic congestion.
Kim said the “proactive” decision by the research and standards communities and consumer-products manufacturers to come together and establish an industry standard for LBS before the market is flooded with devices offering concierge services is somewhat unusual, but highly practical.
“It’s about trying to save a tremendous amount of money,” he said.
“Usually when something is coming into the market – take for instance the Beta/VHS video formats – there’s a lot of duplication and waste for consumers.” In this case, “there’s a huge market coming in, so there was agreement that we’d better get started ahead of time.
“My goal is to provide efficient service at the least cost.”
To date, Kim said, 29 nations have endorsed the new ISO standard for adoption.
Mobile internet, which had just been a distant dream till a few years ago is progressing so fast today that it is revolutionizing the entire framework of communication technology today. Mobile internet is basically an extension of the internet on mobile devices which allows the users to access internet even while they are on a move. However, that is not the only function of mobile internet.
Mobile internet is a lot more than that. It is an integration of telecommunication technologies and internet in such a way that it provides solutions to all types of communication requirements of man today. With the amount of progress which has been achieved in wireless technology, sophisticated software and hardware design, the way we communicate has changed in quite a major way.
In the last few years, not only has the use of cell phones increased in quite a dramatic way, but the way that people prefer to communicate and stay in touch with the world has changed too. People today are always on the move, and for this reason, the best way to stay in touch with others is through mobile internet. Today, with high technology cell phones which support numerous internet functions, people are using their favorite social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter while they are on the move.
Mobile broadband technology- speed on the go
Mobile broadband technology is the next generation evolution which changed the way how we communicated. Basically, with the help of mobile broadband, the computer users can surf the internet, send and receive email from anywhere they like even outside their home.
Mobile broadband works on the same technology on which cell phones work. It is all about the radio frequencies and waves. The cell phone radio towers and cell phones send packets of information back and forth through radio waves. For cell phone broadband, the information packets can be data like streaming video, music files, web pages and e-mails.
Basically, there are two technologies which are used to operate the networks of cell phones- CDMA (Code division multiple access) and GSM (Global System for mobile communications). GSM is quite popular in Asia and Europe while CDMA is popular in the US. There are quite major differences between these systems and the way that they operate. Both of these use different types of algorithms which allow several cell phone users to share the same frequency without interfering the usage of others.
Mobile broadband is known as third generation mobile technology or 3G. CDMA and GSM both have their 3G technology solutions for allowing users to deliver high speed access to the internet on mobile devices.
Mobile internet and broadband technology is the new trend in cell phone users. People prefer to listen to music, watch videos, send and receive emails and communicate to each other while they are on the move, and to be able to do that they need mobile broadband or mobile internet. With so many people hooked on to the virtual world and the mobile technologies, there is no doubt that there would still be many more developments in this field.
In the past 15 years, the internet has fundamentally changed the way we work, play and communicate. Evolving wireless and mobile broadband technologies are now enabling the next major wave — the Mobile Internet.The next-generation Mobile Internet will enable consumers and businesses to connect and access new types of applications and new forms of information wherever and whenever they want. The development of this new Mobile Internet marketplace has just begun.
In the next decade, the expansion of the Mobile Internet will likely be the fastest growing marketplace in the telecommunications industry.
"Basically because of the ability of these companies to combine their resources and deliver 4G broadband internet to homes across America, particularly out in the areas in the hinterlands where folks don't currently have 4G. It is important that we be able to expand that," said Goolsby.
He said he would normally have a problem with two major corporations merging, but the industry is regulated. "Their prices are regulated, the delivery of services are regulated, their areas are regulated. If this were totally a free market thing, I absolutely could understand those concerns. It is the kind of thing that we have to watch. If we do have problems with it, then we need to roll it back and figure out something different."
Goolsby is from New Hanover County. Aside from Wilmington, the county is very rural and Goolsby believes rural areas would benefit greatly from a merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. If the FCC does reject the merger, AT&T can still appeal the decision, opening up a second trial in federal court.
