Mr. Schoenfield holds a BA degree in Business Administration from San Francisco State University, and a Certificate in Strategic Marketing of Information Technology from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

"The Polaris Wireless Location Signatures (Polaris WLS^TM) location platform offers the flexibility to deploy a variety of mission-critical applications, such as public safety emergency services and geo-fencing critical infrastructure, while allowing wireless service providers to generate revenue through location-based services (LBS)," said Manlio Allegra, President and CEO, Polaris Wireless. "As Lead Systems Integrator, Polaris Wireless can demonstrate the true value of an end-to-end high accuracy location solution."

Competing location solutions rely on Cell-ID/Enhanced Cell-ID (ECID) or Assisted GPS (A-GPS) to determine handset location. However, these technologies provide neither the accuracy necessary to deliver actionable information, nor the ability to track handsets on a mass scale. ECID, which uses crude location information from cell towers to determine approximate locations of handsets, is not accurate enough to support mission-critical or safety-of-life applications. A-GPS is equally hampered by its inability to function reliably indoors or in dense urban environments. It is also relatively easy to disable in the handsets.

The Polaris Wireless solution leverages the advantages of Polaris WLS^TM technology to quickly and reliably determine location of mobile devices to an accuracy of 50 meters or less. Like a fingerprint's pattern of lines and swirls, each location can be identified by a unique set of values based on measurements of neighboring cell signal strengths, time delays and other network parameters. The Polaris WLS^TM solution collects this information and matches it against a database of predicted values to provide highly accurate mobile device locations, regardless of the type of environment.

"As a standalone location technology, Wi-Fi can be highly inaccurate and unreliable in providing precise location estimates, particularly for mission-critical and safety-of-life applications. However, Wi-Fi measurements in conjunction with the Polaris WLS^TM location solution enhance accuracy, reliability and yield-particularly in dense urban and indoor environments," said Manlio Allegra, CEO of Polaris Wireless.

By utilizing Secure User Plane (SUPL) standards in addition to the traditional control plane standards, Polaris WLSTM enhances location intelligence across the operator's wireless network. This approach renders the network transparent to location applications, enabling service providers to support complex migrations from existing 2G and 3G to emerging 4G technologies. The end result is that operators will be able to deliver location applications and solutions with high accuracy in a cost-effective and seamless manner.

"An integrated hybrid location solution that fully leverages cellular network information, Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) and Wi-Fi with other location technologies will be an enabler for 4G applications," said Brent Iadarola, Global Research Director of Mobile and Wireless Communications at Frost & Sullivan. "It provides carriers with a single platform for all devices and interfaces, allowing the industry to focus on creating and supporting richer, more powerful location applications."

Embracing a Best-in-class Hybrid Approach

Adding Wi-Fi support to its Hybrid solution gives Polaris Wireless one more input in pinpointing the precise location of mobile devices. Combined with the company's Wireless Location Signatures technology, A-GPS and other technologies, this enhanced hybrid approach leverages all available methods to ensure that location is determined as quickly and as accurately as possible across the range of environments.

The company is predicting that with 4G on the horizon, 2010 will see more devices going wireless, similar to Amazon's Kindle. Location-based services will also benefit from spatial context, for example, knowing when a consumer is walking by a coffee shop.

"As compared to the PC and Internet world, the mobile device is now as personal to an individual as their own wallet," said Martin Feuerstein, chief technology officer of Polaris Wireless, Santa Clara, CA.

"Most consumers today are not open to receiving communication in the form of unsolicited advertising unless it is initiated by them for a specific purpose," he said.

"From a technology perspective, it is important that the mobile marketing and advertising world understands the customer's need, their profile and usage patterns."

Polaris Wireless is a service provider of software-based, location systems that determine the location of mobile phones.

Locating fears
Mr. Feuerstein said location-based services will raise a huge concern from a privacy perspective and those concerns will continue in 2010.

Consumers today are still skeptical about how mobile marketing and advertising opt-in scenarios will expose their privacy. This causes adoption issues.

Mr. Feuerstein said previous market trials of opt-in and privacy settings have shown that initially consumers were hesitant. But once they experienced the tangible benefits of a relevant service, they became comfortable with loosening privacy settings.

According to Polaris Wireless, another technical challenge is the lack of high accuracy location in dense urban and indoor areas where most consumers use their phones for accessing various applications.

"High-accuracy location technologies for dense urban and indoor areas do exist but wireless service providers have not deployed the same," Mr. Feuerstein said. "High-accuracy location in areas where consumers use their phones the most will provide the required context and relevance required for mobile marketing and advertising to succeed.

"It will result in high service adoption and coupon redemption rates for advertising brands," he said.

This position is for a radio propagation-modeling expert. The position involves creating and refining highly accurate RF propagation prediction models for outdoor and indoor scenarios.

The trials, performed in multiple continents, are claimed to demonstrate that Polaris's Hybrid solution performs better than A-GPS alone in both indoor and complex environments, such as dense urban areas with high rise buildings and many signal obstructions.  In addition, Polaris Wireless announced that its solution is 4G LTE ready with the Hybrid solution supporting multiple cellular air interfaces (2G/3G/4G) in a single platform in support of carrier's multi-mode services and devices.

"The ability to locate wireless handsets and devices in indoor environments is particularly important since that is where most users originate voice and data calls," said Professor Per K. Enge, a leading researcher at Stanford University's GPS Laboratory. "Location performance in places like high rise office buildings and indoor shopping malls is critical to meeting consumer and enterprise demand as well as emergency call requirements. Further, with the established trend of mobile wireless replacing landline services, the importance of accurate, timely and efficient location indoors will continue to rapidly grow."

"The advantage of the Polaris Wireless solution is that it works well in non line-of-sight, cluttered environments - with indoors being a particularly challenging environment for cellular location systems," said Dr. Marty Feuerstein, CTO of Polaris Wireless. "WLS capitalizes on complex obstructions and shadowing to improve location performance. In addition, the Polaris Wireless Hybrid location solution for 4G LTE networks enables truly global and ubiquitous location-aware applications that offer consumers far more than today's turn-by-turn navigation."

"The advantage of the Polaris Wireless solution is that it works well in non line-of-sight, cluttered environments - with indoors being a particularly challenging environment for cellular location systems," said Dr. Marty Feuerstein, CTO of Polaris Wireless. "WLS capitalizes on complex obstructions and shadowing to improve location performance."

North American carriers have recently conducted 3G location system trials, testing indoor and outdoor wireless location performance over an urban trial area of 10 square kilometers. Polaris out performed other solutions with a consistent accuracy of 47 to 59 meters versus 230 to 250 meters at 67th percentile. As further confirmation, a major wireless service provider in Asia recently tested location performance, including accuracy, time to fix and battery consumption in urban and suburban settings. Results demonstrated Polaris Hybrid solution performance of 50 to 60 meters in 5 seconds time to fix compared with alternatives at 130 to 140 meters with 20 to 30 seconds time to fix. In addition, significant improvements in battery consumption were demonstrated to support pervasive location applications requiring frequent fixes, such as zone-based mobile marketing services.

Like a fingerprint's pattern of lines and swirls, a location can be identified by a unique set of values including measurements of neighboring cell signal strengths, time delays and other network parameters. The Polaris WLSTM solution collects this information and uses it to match incoming signals to an extensive georeferenced database of values to determine highly accurate handset location-regardless of the type of environment. In fact, the company said that shadowing from large buildings, walls and other clutter enriches the location signature and increases accuracy.

"The ability to locate wireless handsets and devices in indoor environments is particularly important since that is where most users originate voice and data calls," said Professor Per K. Enge, a leading researcher at Stanford University's GPS Laboratory. "Location performance in places like high rise office buildings and indoor shopping malls is critical to meeting consumer and enterprise demand as well as emergency call requirements. Further, with the established trend of mobile wireless replacing landline services, the importance of accurate, timely and efficient location indoors will continue to rapidly grow."

"The advantage of the Polaris Wireless solution is that it works well in non line-of-sight, cluttered environments - with indoors being a particularly challenging environment for cellular location systems," said Dr. Marty Feuerstein, CTO of Polaris Wireless. "WLS capitalizes on complex obstructions and shadowing to improve location performance. In addition, the Polaris Wireless Hybrid location solution for 4G LTE networks enables truly global and ubiquitous location-aware applications that offer consumers far more than today's turn-by-turn navigation."

North American carriers have recently conducted 3G location system trials, testing indoor and outdoor wireless location performance over an urban trial area of 10 square kilometers. Polaris out performed other solutions with a consistent accuracy of 47 to 59 meters versus 230 to 250 meters at 67th percentile. As further confirmation, a major wireless service provider in Asia recently tested 3G location performance, including accuracy, time to fix and battery consumption in urban and suburban settings. Results demonstrated Polaris Hybrid solution performance of 50 to 60 meters in 5 seconds time to fix compared with alternatives at 130 to 140 meters with 20 to 30 seconds time to fix. In addition, significant improvements in battery consumption were demonstrated to support pervasive location applications requiring frequent fixes, such as zone-based mobile marketing services.

The trial results show that the Polaris Wireless approach to determining handset location, independent of handset capabilities and features such as Wi-Fi, is well suited to indoor and dense urban environments. Like a fingerprint's pattern of lines and swirls, a location can be identified by a unique set of values including measurements of neighboring cell signal strengths, time delays and other network parameters. The Polaris WLS^TM solution collects this information and uses it to match incoming signals to an extensive georeferenced database of values to determine highly accurate handset location-regardless of the type of environment. In fact, shadowing from large buildings, walls and other clutter enriches the location signature and increases accuracy.

The Polaris WLS^TM solution is available on all air major cellular interfaces including GSM, cdma2000, UMTS and LTE. In particular, LTE networks, one of the 4G standards that will usher in next generation broadband wireless performance, greatly surpass the 3G networks of today. LTE promises a truly broadband experience capable of supporting a new world of advanced voice and data applications, all based on Internet Protocol. The proliferation of 4G networks promises to create a single, unified global wireless infrastructure for content-rich applications, where location awareness is ubiquitous and transparent. Location-based services will work seamlessly across continents and oceans, driving the wide-scale development and deployment of powerful applications that thrive on frequent and accurate location updates on a mass scale and in real-time. Today, the Polaris WLS solution is commercially deployed with twenty 2G wireless carriers in the US and three 3G wireless carriers in Asia.

Location-based services are already available on today's 3G networks-most notably on the Apple iPhone 3G-however, these applications are primarily built around basic turnby-turn navigation tools. More pervasive and interactive mobile social networks, multiplayer gaming, zone-based coupon/advertising promotions and asset tracking will drive the need for high-accuracy, high-yield and low-latency location-based services on 4G networks.