AT&T Wireless rolls out the first ever, Find Friend application, allowing users to locate their friends and family
AT&T Wireless and Location Based Services Technology
AT&T Wireless recognized the growing need to supply location-based technology to mobile users. AT&T Wireless' goal was to provide enhanced LBS solutions for people to stay in touch with friends and family, to be able to find one another and get directions to local shops and restaurants. To offer LBS applications, AT&T Wireless created the first ever "Find Friends" application and chose to build its LBS platform on top of Kivera's Location Engine. In doing this, AT&T Wireless became the first provider in the United States to bring LBS technology to wireless end users.
Kivera and AT&T Wireless
The Kivera Location Engine, notably the best of breed in LBS technology, was chosen to power AT&T Wireless and lead the wireless market into the LBS era. After stress-testing several potential providers, AT&T Wireless found that Kivera's accuracy and reliability excelled among the location-based service providers and that Kivera could easily integrate with AT&T Wireless' existing infrastructure with no security risks.
Customized Services
Kivera's Professional Services and the AT&T Wireless product team collaborated to streamline seemingly unrelated information and come up with an idea for a groundbreaking application to showcase AT&T Wireless' new location-based technology. The teams came up with "Find Friend."
Kivera's platform supports the "Find Friend" application by allowing AT&T Wireless mMode customers to pinpoint the precise whereabouts of any of their "Buddies" and receive directions to and from that location. The engine enables this by interpreting a mobile phone's latitude and longitude - the first services of it's kind in the United States.
Rapid Deployment
Kivera's team worked hand in hand with AT&T Wireless to take a concept and create a usable application. By leveraging the accuracy and speed of the Kivera Location Engine, AT&T was able to work with Kivera to customize the graphic user interface (GUI), improve application flow and brand the interface in only three months - an astonishing feat in the wireless world.
AT&T Wireless Speaks Out
"Kivera's location engine is at the core of AT&T Wireless' mMode 'Find Friends' service," said Phil Osman, executive vice president of Operations for AT&T Wireless. "Kivera's Professional Services group provided not only strategic consulting, but also application development services to help AT&T Wireless successfully deploy the "Find Friends" application quickly and seamlessly."
One Giant Leap
The "Find Friend" application is an important step for location-based solutions and Kivera continues to provide the backbone for AT&T Wireless to bring reliable, scalable and attractive LBS services to market. With the collaboration of Kivera and AT&T Wireless, users can locate nearby shops, restaurants and bars, get detailed travel directions, arrange meetings and, of course, know the whereabouts of friends and family.
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