The Global Positioning System has provided people with a useful technology to develop many applications that utilise and rely on location-based information. The increasing accuracy of GPS has led to security fears from terrorist attack. GPS technology can be used by anyone and for any purpose, however real fears are small and should not lead to shrinkage in the openness of GPS. GPS can be used to have a negative impact by aiding the deployment of weapons by terrorists or robberies by criminals etc. but this is true of most technologies. The development and deployment of mobile phones has not been curtailed by their use amongst criminals and terrorists, nor has the PC (viruses, cracking codes) or laser printers (printing fake ID or currency). However, as GPS has been integrated into much military equipment we therefore view it with more skepticism. In deed, terrorists or criminals could use GPS for many destructive and ill-gotten gains. GPS has only developed into such a useful technology because it has been open and universally available, for it to continue to prosper these premises will need to be maintained.

GPS is used in many applications, the most common involving location and the sea and surveying. Most sailing boats and vessels have a GPS receiver and many sailing enthusiasts own personal handheld GPS devices. Ramblers and hikers are beginning to purchase handheld GPS devices to prevent them from becoming lost and GPS has been incorporated into many transportation and navigation systems. However, despite GPS seeing high levels of penetration in a few niche areas it has yet to attain its true market potential. GPS is about to enter the mainstream. This versatile technology is providing the ability to incorporate many value-added services to mobile devices, this goes far beyond being able to push products and services at GPS connected individuals.

GPS has the ability to provide users with added security and piece of mind. Part of the reason that mobile phones were purchased by women in the early days of the technology was to provide them with piece of mind, should their car break down and the ability to call their spouse to collect them or for other assistance. In the same way GPS has the ability to provide information on a person’s whereabouts that could be of use to all emergency services, whether this is the police, ambulance, fire, coastguard or even vehicle breakdown recovery. This was tragically demonstrated recently in the Northwest of England in January 2002 when father and son drowned while walking the South Cumbrian beaches. Despite having the use of a mobile phone and raising the alarm that they were trapped by a rising tide and disorientated and lost in fog, emergency services were unable to locate them despite being in earshot of the two people. Through GPS location their lives may have been saved. GPS has the potential not only to save lives but also aid emergency services in other ways, it can speed up the ability for emergency services to locate people, it can also be used in conjunction with map and traffic information to get the speediest response and also allow administrators to immediately see which emergency crew is nearest to the scene of the incident.

All these applications are all well and good but they will only come into their own if everyone uses them and as yet if we are not a sailor or a keen walker then we are unlikely to have come into contact with a GPS device. It is not stand-alone GPS devices that people need, it is cheap integrated GPS technology that is required and this is beginning to appear. GPS is being integrated into mobile phones, Samsung’s SPH-300 uses a Qualcomm Mobile Station Modem MSM3300 GPS chipset. This is a normal mobile phone which is WAP compliant and has GPS technology embedded into its systems. In deed, many PDAs, laptops and other mobile devices can be GPS enabled with the addition of a module that fits into existing PCMCIA slots or other such connection points. In deed, even in the sailing world GPS is finding new growth areas as sailors look to improve their security and well-being. Many sailors are now buying a back-up GPS device and even EPIRBs (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons) are now integrating GPS technology, this can reduce the search area from 18 square kilometers from traditional EPIRBs to less than 0.5 square kilometers.

Despite GPS being integrated into few mobile phones and other application areas there are signs that it is about to find a whole new audience. Sony began a review of CPS technology providers in 2000 and has chosen a GPS receiver chip from Valence Semiconductor, Irvine, California to go into GPS modules. The VS7001 chip is a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) with a power consumption of 27mW and is therefore suitable for use with small mobile devices. With Sony looking to integrate GPS technology into its mobile devices we should see interest from other leading manufacturers. The ability to develop single-chip GPS system will provide many mobile device manufacturers with the opportunity to integrate GPS technology with a small enough footprint that is easily assimilated. This is not to say that present GSM phones cannot be located within a cell, they can. Cell-ID technology can be readily used in urban areas where there is sufficient coverage, however in more rural places this is not always the case and GPS technology provides always-on coverage. The culmination of GPS and Cell-ID technology would appear to be the best route for mobile device manufacturers to follow.

Although the widespread use of GPS technology has yet to have the same impact on our lives as the mobile phone has, its increasing development should lead to its ready incorporation as with other technologies such as Bluetooth. GPS will add value to mobile devices, however operators and manufacturers must think about the value that this gives end-users. Must the focus and interest always be on the sale of location-based services? No, not always, for many it has more to do with piece of mind and knowing should something happen to you that you are more likely to be found and attended to, even if you are unable to make the call yourself. GPS technology has the ability to save lives and provide added security to its users rather than be thought of as a destructive tool.

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