Orange UK introduces location services
Some mobile phones will be turned into navigation devices from next week, capable of directing users to their nearest cash machine, hospital or cinema.
The service, set to be introduced by Orange, Britain's third-largest network operator, will be the first of its kind in the country to offer mobile phone users products tailored to their location.
The technology will give an early glimpse of the kinds of applications that operators hope will transform mobile phones into valuable sources of data information - and help pay back the E100bn (£61bn) invested this year in licences to build third-generation mobile phone networks in Europe.
Customers will be able to identify their nearest business or emergency service while on the move and get driving instructions directing them from their current location to any given destination.
"Location-based services will become as ubiquitous and important to the mobile customer as voice mail and caller ID," said Richard Brennan, commercial director of Orange.
Orange and its rivals are under severe pressure from investors to develop money-spinning applications to pay back the huge sums invested in spectrum licences.
The uptake of location-based services, along with other fledgling data services, will be closely scrutinised by analysts and industry insiders who have been expressing doubts about how much demand there is for wireless information and entertainment.
The Orange service will be restricted to users of internet-enabled wireless application protocol (WAP) phones, which have been a disappointment since their introduction this year.
User numbers have been poor and there have been complaints about reliability and the time it takes to connect to the internet and download data.
Orange's introduction of the location-based product follows a successful trial of the product, involving 800 customers.
"The trial has been a success - the usage patterns among trial users demonstrated real demand for location-based services," said Mr Brennan.
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