November 29, 2000

Right here
Location technologies remain on track

In our November issue, we detailed both GPS location technologies and location-based services that will be offered by wireless carriers (see "Know where" and "Pinpointing"). Already, however, vendors have added products that weren't mentioned in those articles and validated some technologies that were covered.

Qualcomm, for example, just became the first silicon vendor to integrate GPS functionality into a cellular-phone chip. Designed in a silicon-germanium (SiGe) process, the RFR3300 radio-frequency IC provides the front-end receiver functions necessary for CDMA cellular operation and for GPS signals. The company claims that the IC, when combined with Qualcomm modem and baseband processor ICs, will enable the first miniature phones with built-in GPS. Moreover, the resulting handsets will be compatible with the company's SnapTrack location service.

In Europe, meanwhile, the SnapTrack GSM Test Group consortium and wireless carriers including CMG Telecommunications have completed a yearlong validation of the SnapTrack location technology. The tests included locating handsets across country and service-provider boundaries and encompassed both rural and urban tests.

For relatively open outdoor sites, including suburban neighborhoods and wooded parks, typical accuracy fell in the 5-to-10-meter range. Outdoor testing in dense urban and urban-canyon environments, including both narrow Parisian streets and modern skyscrapers, yielded average accuracy of 30 to 50 meters. SnapTrack can also locate handsets within buildings, and the tests validated the ability of the technology to yield indoor accuracy of 30 to 45 meters.

—Maury Wright