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Originally published on 06/03/2002
In 1996, the Federal Communications Commission introduced a mandate called Enhanced 911 (E911). It compels cellular companies to adopt technology that will yield the location of wireless callers who request emergency assistance. The deadline for the rollout has passed, yet few cellular carriers can reliably locate their callers at the required accuracy.
Fast Facts:
Enuvis
www.enuvis.com |
| President |
Michael Kim. Previously at Anam Electronics.
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| HQ |
South San Francisco, CA
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| Employees |
40
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| Market |
Geolocation technology
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| Funding |
$15M A round from Greylock and August Capital. Raising B round now.
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| Profitable? |
No revenues or customers yet
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There are business and technological reasons why E911 isn't here. First, aside from safety applications in cars, no slam-dunk business model is pushing the wireless carriers to implement this technology (although there are financial penalties being meted out by the FCC for launching late). Second, there's technological confusion: getting location info from cell phones requires either that the cell towers are able to determine where the phones are through triangulation, or that the phones are able to determine location by using GPS (global positioning satellites). There's also a hybrid technology, enhanced observed time difference (EOTD) that's not living up to its promise.
I'd wager that GPS-based technologies will eventually win, for a few reasons -- including the fact that this method works acceptably even in areas of sparse cellular coverage, where triangulation can fail.
On the other hand, GPS technologies require new handsets, and GPS signals don't penetrate buildings and urban jungles well. However, companies like Enuvis claim that "assisted GPS" technology can get a clean signal where traditional receivers don't work. Enuvis competes with Qualcomm's SnapTrack, the incumbent for CDMA devices (Enuvis targets other carrier technologies, like GSM).
As with other wireless technologies, the United States is not ahead in this area (even though the GPS satellites are all American). E911 is pushing the development of the technology along here; however, a mandate is not a business model. Were there clear and substantial profits to be made from location services here, the technology would doubtless be more developed.
- Rafe Needleman
email: rafe-needleman@catchoday.com
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