Creativity Software

FamilyWise Case Study

Leading Mobile operator in Latin America launches SMS-based family & buddy finder service

Challenge:

All Mobile Network Operators (MNO) are under increasing pressure to introduce new value added, revenue generating, consumer facing services that allow them to increase their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU). Because of the global trend of declining revenues from voice, the focus is on services that increase the data traffic on the network.

Location Based Services has been chosen by seceral MNOs as critical in achieving their business goals. The challenge is to launch a service aimed at mass market consumers, that overcomes the issue of low penetration of fixed broadband and mobile internet, as well as the low penetration of GPS-enabled handsets.

One successful solution is an SMS/cell-id-based deployment of a family & buddy locator service. This means that (WAP/MMS) maps are not required to display the location of people, and GPS is not necessary as a means to detect the location of the phones.

While an obvious solution is to use Cell-Id as a positioning method, other challenges are uncovered: there is no GMLC (Gateway Mobile Location Centre) within the network infrastructure – which means that the application/service layer is not able to interrogate the location database. Also, there is no commercially available geo data available from the traditional suppliers (i.e Navteq/TeleAtlas).

Solution:

The solution to all these challenges is a systems integration project – which passes full responsibility to Creativity Software to package the end service, with elements bought in from local and international suppliers. This brings the flexibility to customise the functionality to the needs of the local market, while allowing the MNO to minimise the time-to-market (TTM), the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the overall risk.

Creativity Software’s FamilyWise solution is chosen as the core element within this, and is deployed as a White Label Service.

The service provisioning requires the use of a Reverse Geo Database of the country, which has a geo-coded listing of all the streets, intersections and major landmarks. This allows FamilyWise to send back to the Locator a short message with the address of the Locatee (‘Manuel is in the vicinity of xyz…”).

To address the issue of the lack of a GMLC, an SS7 signalling server (Dialogic’s G21) is used to interrogate the HLRs in order to obtain the real time Cell-Id corresponding to the mobile phone being located.(see more details here) A cross reference of the Cell-Id with their geo-coordinates, in addition to a cross reference with the reverse geo database of the country allows FamilyWise to send the location of the Locatee via text message.

The level of accuracy is dependent on the density of the network’s Cells, but this is augmented by the use of sophisticated software algorithms within the application layer, so that a more dependable level of accuracy is delivered to the end user.