Vodafone boosts Tele Atlas' position against Nokia Navteq
Published: 20 July, 2009
Location-based services are one of the powerhouses of mobile growth, and the top tier players are busily signing their partners. This started with Nokia's $8.1bn purchase of Navteq, but the operators are keen too, and Vodafone has signed a global deal to standardize its own location-based services on Tele Atlas' digital maps and content.
Tele Atlas and Vodafone will collaborate to enable powerful LBS, routing and mapping applications for mobile users around the world. Tele Atlas - acquired last year for €2.9bn by Dutch firm TomTom, after a bidding war with Garmin - has a virtual duopoly in the digital mapping market with Nokia's Navteq, and both are looking to expand rapidly beyond handheld and in-car PNDs (personal navigation devices) into multipurpose gadgets like phones.
TomTom's attempt will gain a significant boost from the support of Vodafone, which has named 'social location' - integrating mapping, location awareness, location specific content, and social networking - as the heart of its web services strategy. The agreement gives the cellco access to Tele Atlas' global digital map content and products, including 24m 'points of interest', 3D landmarks, 2D city maps and digital elevation models. Also included are Tele Atlas Speed Profiles, which provide speed data to help users find optimal routes.
Vodafone Group's director of internet services marketing and new business, Bobby Rao, commented in a statement: "Accurate location content is at the heart of many of [our] offerings, allowing Vodafone to deliver a powerful, seamless mobile experience around the world, based on up-to-date maps and content."
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