Family Safety and Security Continues to be a Key LBS Application Area for Networks

24 Apr 2009

AT&T has announced, that it's FamilyMap family locator service underscores the realization on the part of network operators that having a comprehensive set of LBS offerings that address core subscriber concerns is critical to maintaining market share.

Being identical to Sprint Family Locator in many respects, which was also developed with Wavemarket, the new application works best on GPS-enabled handsets, If the device doesn't contain a GPS chipset or is not in clear line of site of a satellite, the system automatically uses alternative (read network) location technologies, and the accuracy falls to a few hundred yards or more.

Both family tracking/locating services offer schedule checks that allow parents to set a day and time to automatically locate a family member's phone. For security reasons, the applications send a text message to registered handsets when they become locatable. Stored location information is deleted periodically from the network server.

Some slight differences relate to pricing. The Sprint application is available for a 15-day free trial, while the newer AT&T service offers a 30-day trial. After the free trial period, a monthly Family Locator subscription is five dollars to locate up to four phones, and a FamilyMap subscription is $9.99 to track up to 2 phones and $14.99 for up to 5 phones. While AT&T requires a data plan, Sprint does not. I expect future generations of family tracking/locating applications to be seamlessly integrated with other LBS services in a way that allows users/subscribers to select the service segments that are active ant any given time, but for now the Wavemarket-developed application remains a mainstream network offering in this area.