Anonymous cell phone data is about to change traffic services dramatically, and there are significant implications for the NAVTEQ / Tele Atlas duopoly. More on that in a moment; first, today's news...
TomTom announced a new "High Definition Traffic" service for the Netherlands, utilizing anonymous cell phone data. In the first half of 2008, the service will be rolled out in the UK too. There is no mention of plans to bring it to the U.S. TomTom says the system will greatly increase the accuracy of traffic reports and arrival time estimates.
Closer to home, IntelliOne offers such a service, which has been picked up by Rogers Wireless, a Canadian cellular network.
Of course Dash Navigation is bringing such data to the U.S., but it will only come from other Dash users, not from a broader cell phone network.
Breaking the NAVTEQ / Tele Atlas duopoly
Currently there are only two major road data providers in the U.S. and most of the world. NAVTEQ is being bought by Nokia while Garmin and TomTom battle it out for Tele Atlas. But the game isn't over yet. When NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas started out, there weren't many ways to gather data other than drive the streets to acquire it.
Now however, there are millions of cell phone users out there, generating not only traffic data, but road data every day. Cell tower triangulation isn't that accurate, but as more and more true GPS phones make it to market, the data is going to get much better.
When you add in government-owned (public domain) data, the greatly expanded satellite imagery available these days, and the possibility of personal navigation device owners reporting data (ala Map Share and the Dash Express), you can see that the barriers to entry for a new mapping company aren't what they once were.
Who might make a stab at such a task? The usual suspects are companies with huge resources -- Microsoft and Google, but don't discount other players like Siemens, Qualcomm or various cellular carriers. And Garmin or TomTom may yet get swallowed up by one of them.
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