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Deadline over, telcos yet to start location-based services

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

MUMBAI, INDIA: The department of telecommunication (DoT)'s deadline of May 31, 2012, for deploying location-based services (LBS) has gone without much success.

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Most telcos haven't complied to DoT's order for location-based technology as they are finding it a bit difficult to meet the proposed norm of accuracy.

“This is an industry concern. The accuracy levels demanded by the DoT would be almost impossible to achieve. We are representing before the government on the challenges to meeting the stipulated levels and are talking to find solution to the same,” said Vodafone India's official company spokesperson.

Bharti Airtel's official spokesperson said, “Since it's an industry issue, the company is in talks with ITU and so wouldn't comment more on this.” Tata Teleservices Limited and Tata DoCoMo didn't respond to mails from CyberMedia News for this story.

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The need for accurate location-based services (LBS) came after the Mumbai attacks (26/11) in 2008 and the LBS was seen an effective means to zero down on terrorist activities by tracking mobile users.

The DoT had issued a mandatory norm for telcos to implement LBS last year with a deadline of May 31. As per DoT, the telcos were asked to have 30 percent accuracy in 50-metre distance in urban area within the first year of deployment and increase the accuracy level to 50 per cent over next two years.

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Similarly, for a 100 metre distance, the accuracy level will be 60 percent in the first year and will go up to 75 in the following year.

“Because the mandate asks carriers to deploy accurate location technology by May 31, which is days from now, I don't think anybody would be able to meet that deadline,” Manlio Allegra, Polaris Wireless's Co- Founder, President & CEO had said in an interview to CyberMedia News last month.  

Polaris Wireless is a global location-based solutions provider and has conducted some trials with operators in India.

Allegra had further added with confidence that by year end, most large operators will have accurate location technology in most part of their networks here in India. “Obviously, that has to happen first as they will need to deploy the technology and then the location-based services. So, by 2013 or 2015, there would be a major commercial push for location-based services here.”

However, Rajan Mathews, COAI's Director General was unavailable for comment.

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