Once subscribers are conversant with handset navigation software, mobile operators, according to Vodafone, will be able to drive new revenue streams based upon the satellite navigation sector.
Vodafone's product manager for navigation, Nick Langton, claimed that the company would be able to provide an upgrade from a basic navigation service to one that provided the location of every speed camera, for example. "Also, Vodafone Live has a lot of content, so we may look to leverage some of that into a navigation platform," he said.
Langton said that since the company began offering the GPS-enabled BlackBerry Pearl, it had seen an 80 per cent activation rate of subscribers using it to access navigation services. "A good percentage of them are using the service at least three times per month," he said.
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