October 9, 2000

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Untethered Information At The Right Time And Place

Tsola's Mobile Internet Platform will make information relevant to where users are

By Matthew G. Nelson

More on location identification:

InternetWeek: Wireless Applications (9/18/00) Tele.com: A Search for Location Technology (8/14/00)

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ith the number of wireless users growing at a staggering rate, many companies are realizing that not only do their customers want information delivered to them anywhere, they also want it to be relevant to where they are when they get it. That's led to a rise in location-based wireless technology.

And while some vendors are working to create the technology for pinpointing the location of a wireless device, a new group of software manufacturers is developing systems to make use of that information. "For wireless to be successful, you have to make things relevant to where a user is at a certain point in time," says Tim Scannell, an analyst with Mobile Insights.

To do that, Tsola Inc. this week will unveil its Mobile Internet Platform technology. The product includes a Personalization Engine, which maps content for users based on where they are and what application they're using; a Correlation Engine to correlate data among applications based on a user's personal preferences, location, and calendar information; and a Multichannel Engine to handle the distribution and reception of the information to wireless devices.

Users can enter their daily schedules into their calendaring applications, establish their preferences for information alerts, and receive appropriate event notifications, such as traffic alerts on highways between meetings or the latest stock price of a company that a salesperson is about to visit. The Tsola system doesn't provide a fix on the location of a wireless device, though it may eventually use such data if it's provided by a third party.

Richard Jones, chief technology officer of the eBusiness division of Countrywide Home Loans Inc. in Calabasas, Calif., which gives users wireless access to home-financing information, sees value in the Tsola system. "Real estate is about locations," he says. "If I'm an agent out in the field, it would be great to get a list of all the houses for sale in a given neighborhood. That would be a pretty cool application."

The Tsola Mobile Internet Platform is being tested now; it's slated to be available early next year. Pricing hasn't been set.

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