Location Based Services (LBS): According to Wikipedia, a location-based service (or LBS) in a cellular telephone network is provided to subscribers based on their current geographical location.

This position can be known by

  1. user entry, or
  2. through a GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver embedded in the phone, or
  3. through the use of a radio-location function built into the cell network or handset that uses triangulation between the known geographic coordinates of the base stations through which the communication takes place.
In 1) above, user-entry, sometimes also called push-to-type, refers to when a person uses the cell phone keypad to type an address or zip code.

In 2) and 3) above, cell phones and other mobile devices increasingly have the ability to detect location built into their chipsets. Qualcomm is a leading developer of these chipsets utilized by carriers such as Sprint and Verizon. This LBS functionality is opening up new and innovative ways to find and search for information from mobile phones. We commonly refer to this LBS functionality as “location-aware” and “location-detection”.

Smarter Agent applications will utilize all types of LBS, however GPS driven LBS (A-GPS chipsets in the phone) is our preferred method and the more technology advanced and easier to use.

GPS (Global Positioning System): GPS is the most well-known and accurate type of Location Based Service (LBS). A constellation of more than two dozen GPS satellites broadcasts precise timing signals by radio to GPS receivers, allowing them to accurately determine their location (longitude, latitude, and altitude) in any weather, day or night, anywhere on Earth.

Assisted GPS (A-GPS): A-GPS combines the GPS satellite system with cellular triangulation methods. A-GPS may be more reliable, especially indoors, as GPS requires a direct line of sight to at least three GPS satellites. Indoor usage of A-GPS is getting better – although unobstructed terrain remains the optimal condition. Mobile phones running on carriers such as Sprint and Verizon have a chipset in them that utilizes A-GPS.

Cell phone, cellular phone, or cell: According to Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia, these terms refer to most mobile phones. It technically applies to mobile phones on a Cellular Network. In developing mobile phone technology, American electrical engineers were confronted by the challenge of achieving a smooth handoff from one radio antenna to the next. After the name "cell" was applied to the zone covered by each antenna, it was a natural choice for them to apply the term "cellular" to both the technology and the phones that ran on it.

Mobile, cellular and wireless: We use the terms “cellular,” “mobile” and “wireless” interchangeably: We sometimes use the term mobile devices which can include cell phones but also can include devices such as Blackberries, Treo’s etc. In the future, most of these devices will be LBS capable and will have both voice and data capabilities. Most cell phones already have data and voice capabilities, and LBS is already in many cell phones and should be in the large majority of active phones by the end of 2007.