Pocket PC handheld computers are particularly useful for storing information for people who are on the move and have busy, changing schedules. Contacts, upcoming appointments, travel plans, and brief notes are readily available. Such "who," "what," "when," and "how" information helps the mobile professional in the field.

What is missing is the "where" information. Not information such as where the next appointment will be held, but rather where the handheld user is in physical space. If it were possible to know the changing location of the user in real time, important new services would become available.

Recent developments in such areas as cellular technology, wireless modems and services, and GPS have made real-time location of mobile devices feasible and cost-effective. In the near future there should be a surge of brand new services.

Benefits of Knowing the Location of the Pocket PC

The benefits of wireless location technologies will be seen in many areas including emergency 911 services, advertising, travel, service fleets, and business and personal communications.

E911 Emergency Services

When a distressed citizen calls 911, his call is answered at a Public Service Answering Point, or PSAP. Such calls are placed with a traditional landline phone, a cell phone, or the new PDA/cell phone combination devices. It is from the PSAP that appropriate emergency services are deployed. In circumstances when the caller is unable to tell the emergency operator where he is, a technology known as ALI (Automatic Location Information) provides the address. Through ALI, it is possible for the operator to pinpoint the caller's location through a matching of his phone number to his street address in phone company records (a process done automatically and in just a few moments). When a caller uses a cell phone for the emergency, he can be traced to the nearest cell tower, but not to a specific address or location.

The Federal Communications Commission adopted a Report & Order on June 12, 1996, which addressed this issue. This new standard is called Enhanced E911. Under Phase I, by April 1, 1998, wireless carriers had to be able to identify the phone numbers of their subscribers and locate them to the nearest cell site. Under Phase II, carriers must be able to locate 911 callers to within one-tenth of a mile in 67% of the cases. This requirement was to have been met by October 1, 2001. However, there have been delays in this phase. The FCC's chief of wireless telecommunications is on record in the United States Senate as insisting that the "final" deadline for vendors to meet the Enhanced E911 guidelines of December 31, 2005 will not be delayed.

The FCC E911 requirements are providing what is perhaps the single most important factor driving wireless location technology. The urgency to develop this technology intensified after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

Retailers aware of the emerging wireless location technologies are particularly enthusiastic about their potential. Imagine, for example, a shopper walking through a mall with a powered-on PocketPC equipped with wireless location technology. As he passes through certain areas of the mall that have wireless transmission capabilities, "hot-spots" (think of these as making up the wireless "ecosystem" of the mall), retailers' equipment automatically transmits ads, coupons, and product and service descriptions to the shopper. Additionally, Pocket PC users can locate stores in the vicinity that offer particular products or services, or find a restaurant or movie. When the store, restaurant, or theater is identified, wireless location technologies can then guide the user to his destination with real-time moving maps displayed in color on the Pocket PC screen.

Though such services sound compelling, there are potential problems. Some see the opportunity for a particularly aggressive form of "spamming." Many ads and promotions could descend on the PDA user. He needs to have control over which vendors he will allow to automatically contact him in the wireless ecosystem.

Travel Information