CPS announces industry wide endorsement of E-OTD technology
All major US GSM carriers opt for E-OTD to meet FCC E911 mandate
London, 18 July, 2001: Cambridge Positioning Systems Limited (CPS), the world's leading provider of mobile location technology systems, announced at the company's annual Industry Analyst Meetings that E-OTD (Enhanced Observed Time Difference) has now been selected by all major US GSM mobile operators as their technology of choice for compliance with the impending US emergency services legislation, known as E911.
VoiceStream was the first US GSM operator to opt for CPS' E-OTD technology, and the companies have been working closely together for over a year at a trial network site in Houston, Texas. A second reference network is being commissioned in Washington DC.
AT&T Wireless Services also selected E-OTD as their preferred location technology and has announced implementation plans across its entire GSM network. This month's submission to the FCC by Cingular, another leading US GSM operator, announcing that they will also include E-OTD technology in their networks to meet the conditions of E911, means that this leading technology has been embraced industry-wide by all major GSM operators announcing their intention to meet the FCC's mandate.
E-OTD technology offers fast, cost-effective deployment and can achieve location accuracies to 50 metres. Leading handset providers have announced that GSM handsets produced after Q4 2001 will be E-OTD compatible. CPS is working with, or has licensed its E-OTD technology to, most of the network infrastructure providers, including Ericsson, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Siemens.
"The latest announcement by Cingular and the adoption of E-OTD technology by all major US GSM carriers as the location enabler of choice for their wireless networks is good news," said Chris Wade, CEO, CPS. "We are achieving increased market awareness and adoption through our strategic partners and network equipment vendors. They, along with the mobile operators and terminal manufacturers, are all recognising the opportunities high accuracy location services provide to enhance their revenues and differentiate themselves in the eyes of their customers. At our annual Analyst meetings we have announced major developments to our product set which will dramatically decrease the cost of introduction of Cursor(tm) technology and outlined our UMTS plans." he added.
Commenting at the end of the Analyst events, Jamie Moss, Telecommunications Consultant, Strategis Group, said: "The ease of adoption and distribution of any new wireless technology will always be of crucial importance to any mobile operator. E-OTD's ability to be quickly and cheaply integrated and distributed en masse, requiring zero additional investment on the part of the end user, has allowed the technology to triumph over A-GPS for the US GSM market. CPS' involvement and success to date in the USA sets them in good stead for future relationships with European operators."
Cambridge Positioning Systems (CPS) provides world-leading location technology and services for both the corporate and consumer mobile markets. It is currently partnering a wide range of organisations to introduce value-added location based services and its strategic partners include network equipment and handset manufacturers and software application vendors. For further information, visit www.cursor-system.com
For further information, please contact:
Cambridge Positioning Systems Limited
Jane Windsor
Communications Director
Tel: +44 (0) 1223 326 984
Email: jane.windsor@cursor-system.com
www.cursor-system.com
Cursor(tm) is a registered trademark