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Nokia's big map plans for India

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Nokia's navigation software division, Nokia, Location & Commerce (known as NAVTEQ before being acquired by Nokia for $ 8.1 billion) is quietly working on a big plan to map the whole of India, and facilitate handset vendors and telecom operators to offer a range of navigation, and location based services to the growing population of Indian consumers.

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"We already have extensively mapped over 4000 cities, including rural areas, 6.25 million points of interest, which include offices, malls, schools, hospitals, bus stands, historical monuments, and so on" said Rajat Tandon, country director, sales, Nokia L&C.

"Nokia L&C has also covered 1.28 million km of road network with all the turns, roundabouts, and flyovers," he added.

Also read: Nokia to launch tablets and smartphones: FT

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The company currently has over 1000 people in India, including those out in the field in 20 cities, covering the country. This information is updated on a quarterly basis.

Considering the size and potential of the Indian market, there is a special India focus.

"Keeping in mind the local diversity in the country, voice command based navigation solution is available in all Indian languages. As per a recent survey done to gauge the level of awareness and adoption of maps and navigation, we found that 87 per cent of the respondents know about such solutions on smartphones and would consider using them," said Tarun Harnathka, director South Asia for Product Development.

Location based services (LBS) help handset vendors and telecom operators in offering a range of services like maps and navigation, traffic updates, entertainment, shopping, vehicle tracking, weather updates, health, social networking, ATM, and so on. These services open up new revenue streams for operators as well as handset vendors.

According to Voice&Data estimates, almost 20 per cent of a total of 600 plus million mobile phones in use in India have some smartphone features, which is essential to access LBS. Market experts believe that the money spent on LBS in India is expected to be close to $165 million by 2014.

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