Strategic Analysis of the European Mobile LBS Market

Strategic Analysis of the European Mobile LBS Market published by Berg Insight AB in September, 2006. This report consists of 150 PAGES and the price starts from US $ 2250.

Introduction

Abstract

What are the latest developments on the European LBS market? Berg Insight forecasts that LBS revenues will grow by 50 percent annually. In 2010, about 18 million users will subscribe to location billing plans.

This 150 page strategic report gives a complete overview of 24 European markets and in-depth case studies of the LBS strategies of seven leading mobile operators. Gain detailed insights about the complete LBS value chain spanning from technology vendors, solution vendors and mobile operators to content providers, service providers and application developers.

Executive summary

A few years ago, most observers believed usage of mobile location services in Europe would increase rapidly, but this has not happened yet. In 2005, about 5 years since launch, revenues from mobile location-based services (LBS) amounted to roughly € 144 million. However, a few location enabled services already show much promise in some European countries: handset based navigation and location-based billing of voice calls and mobile data.

Several important drivers can finally bring about a breakthrough for LBS in general. Mobile network operators increasingly seek new ways of maintaining ARPU as the price for voice calls decline due to increased competition and regulation and LBS can definitely contribute to new revenues. EU E112 regulations require location of emergency callers and has prompted operators to install positioning technology in their networks. Although there is no minimum positioning accuracy requirement yet, all operators have to provide basic location information, typically Cell-ID based. The evolution of maturing business models also make more LBS possible for various customer needs. Finally, maturing technologies, especially handset performance, enables dramatically improved customer experience of the services.

Berg Insight estimates that in 2010, revenues from location-based services will reach € 622 million and account for 1.8 percent of the non-voice services. Location based billing of data and voice calls is not included in this figure and adds an additional potential. Although location-based billing of voice calls may not be introduced in all European countries due to specific market characteristics, location-based billing of data transfer can be launched on a wider scale in order to effectively compete with fixed-line services as 3G networks are upgraded with increased bandwidth.

Until now, some of the foremost reasons for the slow service uptake of location-based services have been lack of performance and low customer awareness. Services have simply been too slow and complicated to use, or have provided little cost benefit compared to alternatives. Operators have generally performed little marketing of location-based services and many services are hard to find even if the customer has a general awareness of their existence. Nevertheless, operators are now increasingly integrating services with their portals, which increase visibility.

Since mobile operators have been busy deploying other services, the prioritization of location-based services has largely been put on hold so far. Location is today regarded as a service enabler rather than a set of services in its own right. While some location-based services are dependent on high accuracy positions(e.g. navigation services) others such as information services are perfectly feasible using only low accuracy Cell-ID positioning. Many low accuracy technologies are still appealing because they are handset independent, allowing positioning of all handsets which of course increases the addressable market size.

In some markets, operators provide location feeds to aggregators or directly to third party application developers. This practice is very likely to become more widespread since new market opportunities are created once application developers can reach larger end-user markets more cost effectively. Both mass-market applications and niche applications can be developed when access to location data for all subscribers in all networks become available. Over 40 percent of LBS revenues come today from third party services for business customers, such as tracking and fleet management solutions. Although revenues from tracking services for the consumer market are likely to increase substantially in the coming years, the business segment will account for the majority of revenues from tracking services.

Network operators can today choose from hosted solutions ranging from basic positioning platforms to complete solutions with applications and content. Thus, even small operators in countries with few subscribers, can launch services to increase the return from necessary investments to comply with E112 regulation.

Nevertheless, there are still issues to be resolved before the full potential of location-based services can be unleashed. Location roaming needs to be possible before users can get access to services when travelling abroad. There are several possibilities to make location roaming work, notably middleware roaming and SUPL based solutions. Standardisation in this area is ongoing and in a few years time most issues are likely to be resolved.

Highlights from the report

• Overview of LBS offerings, market strategies and equipment in 24 European markets.
• Case studies of the LBS strategies of 7 leading mobile operators.
• Complete update on location-based regulatory and standards in Europe.
• Update on the latest developments of location technologies.
• Revenue forecasts for the European market by segment until 2010.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

List of Figures

Executive summary

1. Overview of mobile location based services

• 1.1 Definition of mobile location based services
• 1.2 Mobile LBS segments
  • 1.2.1 Location billing
  • 1.2.2 Navigation services
  • 1.2.3 Location information services
  • 1.2.4 Tracking and tracing services
  • 1.2.5 Community and entertainment services
  • 1.2.6 Other services
• 1.3 Accuracy requirements for different LBS

2. LBS value chain and business models

• 2.1 The LBS value chain
  • 2.1.1 Location technology developers
  • 2.1.2 Network equipment and positioning platform vendors
  • 2.1.3 LBS middleware providers
  • 2.1.4 Mobile network operators
  • 2.1.5 Handset manufacturers
  • 2.1.6 Application developers
  • 2.1.7 Location data brokers
  • 2.1.8 Data providers and content aggregators
• 2.2 Business models
  • 2.2.1 Business model considerations
  • 2.2.2 Pricing models
  • 2.2.3 Revenue sharing between the main actors in the value chain
  • 2.2.4 Raising market awareness
• 2.3 Two examples of business models
  • 2.3.1 Cambridge Positioning Systems
  • 2.3.2 Wayfinder Systems

3. Technology and positioning

• 3.1 Introduction
• 3.2 Positioning technologies
  • 3.2.1 Cell-ID
  • 3.2.2 Cell-ID + TA and E-CID
  • 3.2.3 Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA)
  • 3.2.4 Enhanced Observed Time Difference (E-OTD)
  • 3.2.5 Matrix
  • 3.2.6 Global Positioning System (GPS)
  • 3.2.7 Assisted GPS (A-GPS)
  • 3.2.8 E-GPS
  • 3.2.9 Galileo
  • 3.2.10 Theoretical limitations of positioning systems
• 3.3 Positioning platforms and middleware
• 3.4 LBS roaming
• 3.5 Handsets

4. European regulation and harmonisation

• 4.1 E112 implementation.
  • 4.1.1 European E112 regulation and harmonization
  • 4.1.2 Emergency authority issues
• 4.2 Legal aspects of privacy and security when rolling out LBS
• 4.3 Industry-driven initiatives and associations.57
  • 4.3.1 3GPP
  • 4.3.2 ETSI
  • 4.3.3 GSM Association
  • 4.3.4 LOCOMOTION project
  • 4.3.5 The Open Geospatial Consortium
  • 4.3.6 OMA
  • 4.3.7 MMA
• 4.4 Key findings and conclusions

5. Country profiles - LBS offerings, market strategies and equipment

• 5.1 Austria
• 5.2 Belgium
• 5.3 Czech Republic
• 5.4 Denmark
• 5.5 Estonia
• 5.6 Finland
• 5.7 France
• 5.8 Germany
• 5.9 Greece
• 5.10 Hungary
• 5.11 Ireland
• 5.12 Italy
• 5.13 Latvia
• 5.14 Lithuania
• 5.15 Netherlands
• 5.16 Norway
• 5.17 Poland
• 5.18 Portugal
• 5.19 Slovakia
• 5.20 Slovenia
• 5.21 Spain
• 5.22 Sweden
• 5.23 Switzerland
• 5.24 United Kingdom

6. Operator LBS strategies

• 6.1 3Group
  • 6.1.1 Hutchison 3G Austria
  • 6.1.2 Hi3G, Denmark and Sweden
  • 6.1.3 H3G Italy
  • 6.1.4 Hutchison 3G UK & Ireland
• 6.2 O2Group
  • 6.2.1 O2 Germany
  • 6.2.2 O2 Ireland
  • 6.2.3 O2 UK
• 6.3 Orange Group
  • 6.3.1 Orange France
  • 6.3.2 Orange Slovakia
  • 6.3.3 Orange UK
• 6.4 T-Mobile Group
  • 6.4.1 T-Mobile Germany
  • 6.4.2 T-Mobile Austria
• 6.5 Telenor Group
  • 6.5.1 Telenor Mobil, Norway
  • 6.5.2 Pannon, Hungary
  • 6.5.3 Telenor, Sweden
• 6.6 TeliaSonera Group
  • 6.6.1 Telia, Sweden
  • 6.6.2 NetCom, Norway
• 6.7 Vodafone Group
  • 6.7.1 Vodafone D2, Germany
  • 6.7.2 Vodafone UK
  • 6.7.3 Vodafone Italy

7. LBS market forecasts and trends

• 7.1 Forecast categories and methodology
  • 7.1.1 Basic market data and forecasts
  • 7.1.2 Market segmentation
• 7.2 European market observations and trends
• 7.3 LBS revenue growth forecast
• 7.4 Key market segment analysis
  • 7.4.1 Community and entertainment
  • 7.4.2 Information services
  • 7.4.3 Navigation services
  • 7.4.4 Tracking services
  • 7.4.5 Location-based billing of voice calls and data transfer
  • 7.4.6 Other services
• 7.5 Key drivers for LBS
• 7.6 Conclusions

Glossary

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