NAVTEQ, a leading global provider of digital maps for vehicle navigation, has launched a new suite of telecom data content that is associated with NAVTEQ’s NAVSTREETS map database.
Branded Telecom for NAVSTREETS, associates telecommunications data with the NAVSTREETS maps to provide users improved precision usability.
The data sets include:
- GeoTel MetroFiber routes: physical location of fiber optic cables
- Fiber Lit Building Locations: building locations containing fiber
- Tower Locations: location of wireless towers across the USA
- Collocations: facilities that house multiple communication service operations
- Central Office Locations: physical location of switching equipment
- Wire Center Serving Areas: the geographic representation of the local telephone exchange system
- Rate Center Boundaries: the geographic representation for the determination of toll rates
- LATA Boundaries: regulatory boundaries identifying local and long distance carriers
- PSAP Boundaries: Public Safety Answering Points used for 911 and E911 services
- U.S. NPA-NXX Boundaries: regulatory boundaries containing US area codes and prefixes
ABI Research says annual sales of GPS-enabled devices will climb from $15 billion annually to $22 billion by 2008. Web sites like Amazon A-9, Yahoo and Google are making digital maps a part of their strategy.
Perhaps no two companies are better positioned than Navteq and its chief rival Tele Atlas. They have essentially a duopoly in mapping data, explains Newsweek.
Navteq was founded in 1985 to build mapping kiosks for rental-car desks, but it changed gears to work solely on digital maps in the ’90s and went public last August after becoming profitable. Buoyed by excitement over GPS technology, its stock has gone up more than 60 percent since the IPO.
Navteq enjoyed unchallenged primacy on American streets until recently, when Tele Atlas crossed the ocean. It was also founded 20 years ago, the result of a Belgian student’s college project to create digital maps.
Tele Atlas went public in 2000 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and last year, it bought another mapping firm, New Hampshire-based GDT, to bolster its U.S. operation. Both Tele Atlas and Navteq are striving to get even larger, in order to afford the investment needed to keep their data current.
It’s harder than it might seem. The companies seek to know everything on the map—from the largest interstate to the remotest side street. Fieldworkers track items like street signs, speed limits, the number of lanes and “points of interest” like restaurants and hotels. There are slight differences in methodology. Navteq trumpets its team of wandering road warriors and uses their observations to complement a mixture of publicly available government maps, aerial photographs and satellite imagery.
Tele Atlas uses most of the same techniques; but while its crew of 400 field analysts is slightly smaller, it also has partnerships with thousands of telecom firms and governmental agencies that constantly drive the roads on their own and report back on areas that need updating.
Both mapping companies are looking to expand beyond their franchises and are laying plans to add features to the expanding universe of in-car navigation systems and GPS-enabled gadgets.
Motorola announced today that its IHF1000 Bluetooth car kit is currently available for the Aston Martin DB9. The Motorola IHF1000 mutes the vehicle’s stereo system on receipt of an incoming call. Drivers will be able to call out a number or a name and get connected instantly. When the driver reaches their destination, they simply leave the car and the call will automatically transfer from the in-car system to the handset once they are out of range or the ignition is off.
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