German smart card maker Sagem Orga has teamed up with BlueSky Positioning to integrate A-GPS receiver on regular SIM cards. The idea is more than sound, as it will allow users with handsets that don’t come with an integrated GPS receiver to use location based services. Carriers could bundle the special SIM card with some special offerings and entice users to join the new “mobile-location service wave” or simply provide older parents/children watching services.
Here’s what Sagem Orga says about its product:
The primary purpose of A-GPS SIM is to provide accurate positioning information of the phone to emergency services in case of an emergency call as required by E112 and E911 legislation in the EU and the U.S. respectively. In addition to this, it can support generic location-based services such as navigation, “find a place or person” services, location-aware games, and many more.
On the other hand, I’m not sure a chip that small, which can be placed on a SIM card can do the job properly. Luckily it’s a A-GPS, meaning that cellular towers will also help along the way.
[Via: Navigadget]