The BSNL cellone has taken up a pilot project in Andhra Pradesh, India to develop location-based services for cellone subscribers. A gamut of services like Industry "Where Am I" information by various industry services will be provided. Once successful, the services will be introduced in entire South India, said J V Reddy, General Manager, Cellone services, A P Telecom.
www.hindu.com

A new service that aims to consolidate diverse location-based information will start in 2007. Dubbed ePosition, the service automatically searches points of interest (POI) database and different Web servers for information concerning any place worldwide and unifies the content into a single display. Developed by Korean venture firm GG21 (Global Generation 21), ePosition's pilottest service will start from January to June next year, while the actual commercial service will commence from July. www.zdnetasia.com

Fujitsu has unveiled a GPS unit with built-in RFID capabilities to provide the best of both worlds. The Tag Locator V2 sports the locating abilities promising accurate longitude / latitude measurements between "three and five meters, and bundles in an active RFID tag that operates on the 429MHz frequency band.
www.engadget.com

Seiko Epson Corporation ("Epson"), Japan has developed an ultra-sensitive, ultra-compact GPS module to meet high demand from manufacturers of mobile phones and other handsets with GPS functionality. Volume shipment of the S4E19863 series has already begun. This product has been used for some time in all GPScapable models of FOMA903i series1 phones released by NTT DoCoMo, Inc., contributing to the company's services using GPS.
www.epson.co.jp

MapmyIndia.com, online maps portal for India, unveiled v-2007. MapmyIndia v-2007 exploits the Web 2.0 platform to introduce a number of features, not yet offered in India. MapmyIndia v-2007 allows users to drag the maps (at all zoom levels) to explore adjoining areas not currently on the screen.
http://db.mapmyindia.com

deCarta (formerly Telcontar), USA has announced the launch of the deCarta Navigation Software Developer Kit (SDK). The new developer kit enables personal navigation device and smart phone manufacturers to quickly build and bring to market highly customized and differentiated navigation applications. spatialnews.geocomm.com

Spirent Communications, UK, a provider of performance analysis and service management solutions, announced enhancements to its LBS test platform. The Spirent UMTS Location Test System (ULTS) enables the full range of Assisted GPS (AGPS) testing needs; technology and chipset development, design verification of GSM and UMTS devices and UMTS terminal certification.
www.spirentcom.com

A location-based services trial that will see a famous Tokyo neighbourhood blanketed with around 10,000 RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and other beacons got underway. The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project seeks to install RFID, infrared and wireless transmitters throughout Tokyo's Ginza area, which is the most famous shopping area in the capital. The tags and transmitters will provide locationrelated information to people carrying prototype readers developed for the trial, said Ken Sakamura, a professor at The University of Tokyo and the leader of the project.
www.pcadvisor.co.uk

IBM, USA announced new technology to give clients the unprecedented ability to securely share and analyse accurate and real-time data generated by sensors like Radio Frequency ID tags, enabling significant consumer and business applications like drug authentication and e-customs. The new technology, WebSphere RFID Information Center, is based on a recently completed EPCglobal standard called EPCIS, which provides a standard way to securely communicate the data created by sensors and RFID tags, and tie it to existing business information and trading partners.
http://www-03.ibm.com

Vodafone Spain and Genasys, headquartered in Madrid, Spain announce that the operator selected the Genasys Positioning Platform (GPP) as their location enabling server (LES) for the administration and delivery of location based services. Key strengths and differentiating factors of GPP include its proven reliability and advanced location management features; features critical to an operator preparing to extend its location based application portfolio.
www.genasys.com