Vodafone and TomTom team on cellular nav system

Posted on 27 Oct 2006 at 14:43

Mobile phone signals sent from traffic jams will enable a real-time travel information service, British telecoms group Vodafone and Dutch navigation systems company TomTom said on Friday.

The service will be available in the Netherlands in the second half of 2007, using the Dutch Vodafone network.

'I would just be happy to put a smile on customers' faces by helping them get out of the traffic jams they find themselves in on a regular basis,' Guy Laurence, the chief executive of Vodafone Netherlands said in a statement.

Mobile phones continuously beam signals to their nearest base stations, which gives the network provider the approximate location of the phone. TomTom will use this location information to establish if roads are congested, if and by how much the trip will be delayed, and if alternative routes can be suggested.

Mobile phone penetration is more than 100 percent in the Netherlands, meaning that every person carries one or more mobile phones.

'The service provides a much more accurate, faster and more detailed picture of the actual travel times than current solutions. The total investments are a fraction of the current, road side equipment based solutions,' TomTom said.

Unlike current systems, the TomTom system would monitor all roads.

'This is an industry first,' Harold Goddijn, TomTom's chief executive officer said in a statement. 'We are looking forward to signing further deals with leading operators across Europe and the U.S.,' he added.

TomTom sells more than half of all standalone car navigation devices in Europe. In the third quarter it sold 1.2 million of its route finders.

However, the service may lead traffic off motorways and onto provincial roads. The Dutch Municipalities Organisation VNG said it was already concerned how route-finders had led to more traffic in towns and villages.

'We don't want motor traffic to choose roads that are not built as major throughways,' VNG spokeswoman Chantal van Dijk said, adding increased traffic on smaller roads could have an impact on safety.

Cyclists said roads would become more dangerous if drivers are offered short-cuts off congested motorways.

'It is very detrimental for cyclists and pedestrians if motorists are guided to use rat runs,' said spokeswoman Arien de Jong at the Dutch cyclist union ENFB. Around one out of every four trips in the Netherlands is on a bicycle.

Municipalities, provinces and the Dutch state are currently talking to digital map companies like Tele Atlas to determine which roads should be recommended.

TomTom said it was open to these discussions, and willing to work on a solution, but said that the new system would also be useful even if drivers did not choose a bypass.

In the future, the device will give a signal to tell the driver when they need to start a journey to arrive on time, spokesman Taco Titulaer said. 'Managing travel-time expectations is very important,' he added.

Europe is currently the biggest market for car navigation devices, with the United States a distant second.

Author: Reuters