News

T-Mobile and deCarta partner on next generation location services

T-Mobile, the product brand of Deutsche Telekom, one of the major integrated telecommunications companies worldwide, and deCarta, supplier of software and services for the location based services (LBS) industry, have announced a strategic partnership agreement. Under the agreement an advanced set of LBS services will be delivered enabling T-Mobile customers to benefit from true mobile and web convergence as part of T-Mobile’s web’n’walk offering.

T-Mobile will roll out these services in Q4 2009 according to the local needs of each market. Initially launching in the UK, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands, other operating companies will follow in the future.

Under the agreement, T-Mobile will utilise deCarta’s industry leading Drill Down Server (DDS) geospatial platform to power multiple LBS applications; in addition to the company’s advanced APIs to enable third party LBS application development. T-Mobile will also deploy deCarta’s new NavSearch location-based search, mapping, and routing capabilities for mobile phones and the web. NavSearch will be fully integrated with a turn by turn navigation application.

deCarta will provide the off-board turn by turn navigation application through its partner Appello, utilising their industry leading WisePilot navigation application that has been successfully launched in over a dozen countries around the world. The Appello application can be invoked from the location search function incorporating all relevant destination information.

All applications will be fully integrated with T-Mobile’s web’n’walk service to ensure that T-Mobile users can share information across applications such as directions and favourites, and between multiple devices.

“Location based services are a core component of our mobile internet strategy,” said Ingo Schneider, vice president, multimedia at Deutsche Telekom. “Notably, this new offering will give web’n’walk customers the next generation of location based services almost immediately. deCarta’s proven LBS expertise, developer partners and future vision – combined with their ability to enable multiple LBS applications from a single platform –makes them the clear partner for T-Mobile’s new service.”