Wednesday 21st September 2005

PAYG Sat Nav

£1.50 per destination and no software to buy

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GetMeThere.co.uk, a joint venture between Toyota GB and IS Solutions Plc., today sees the launch of TARA Mobile SatNav. They claim it's the first Pay-as-you-go Satellite Navigation solution for mobile and smart phone users in the UK.

The system requires a GPS receiver and software downloaded from their website. Each trip is then charged at £1.50 on top of your normal phone bill.

Jon West, Director of GetMeThere.co.uk said "With over 4.5m navigation systems expected to be sold this year across Europe, TARA Mobile SatNav has arrived just in time to provide a low cost, quality solution for the intelligent motorist. With GPS devices now available around the £50 mark, SatNav has become a must have for all motorists".

TARA which stands for Traffic Avoidance and Routing Application, is an Off-board navigation solution, where all route calculation and traffic avoidance is done remotely, saving time and processing power. The data is then automatically downloaded onto the mobile via GPRS and off they go.

TARA mobile SatNav is available as a free download from GetMeThere.co.uk either directly to the mobile or via a computer and then synchronised to the mobile. Most mobiles are compatible, with a full list being available from GetMeThere.co.uk, the list includes popular Nokia models such as 3650, 3660, 6260, 6600, 6670, and 7610, the Siemens SX1, T-Mobile's MDA II and Compact, together with O2's XDA II range.

Links

• www.getmethere.co.uk

 

[chris.mapey]

Thought this was already being offered by a PH'er (humpbackmaniac) Mike O'Connor.

No need for any downloads, or the need to carry a GPS around. Just your phone...

You are lost, you call his company, and they talk you in.

Easier & cheaper as well.

Chris

[tim2100]

Sounds good. But I find the magic of GPS is finding alternative routes, or if you miss a turning it will still direct you. If all the processing is done remotly and then sent to the mobile. It will not cater for this.

Tim.

[oatz]

What's the point of that?? far cheaper to buy the GPS unit and download tomtom from a helpful friend

[venom]

[redacted]

[LayZ]

I can't really see the point either. If you going to buy a bluetooth-enabled GPS you might as well buy some software to go on your phone too.

Also he must be charging by reverse-bill SMS, so it means he's probably only getting 70p on every £1.50 charged. Not a great business model imo.

[skint_driver]

LayZ said:

I can't really see the point either. If you going to buy a bluetooth-enabled GPS you might as well buy some software to go on your phone too. Also he must be charging by reverse-bill SMS, so it means he's probably only getting 70p on every £1.50 charged. Not a great business model imo.

More likely it will use small HTML web pages or WAP. SMS/MMS wouldn't give a great user interface.

Tomtom for a mobile phone costs about £175, and a decent bluetooth GPS costs about £75. If you only need to navigate for fewer than 133 journeys before the maps on a tomtom would become out of date, I suppose this solution makes sence.

[LayZ]

I doubt it - it will be a Symbian app which then triggers a premium SMS. Otherwise it would use way to much data transferring the GPS data over GPRS and would cost a fortune to use.

[ATG]

pay as you go versus one off payment ... assume 5% interest, 5 year life of the product and £150 up front for the standalone service, and you have to use the GPS less than once every 16 days to make the pay-as-you-go cheaper. Use it once every 8 days and pay-as-you-go is twice as expensive. Once every 32 days is half the price. So, fair value for occasional use. Thing is, if you're really going to use it that infrequently, would you really bother with a system like this at all?

[rico]

A map costs a couple of quid

[TUS 373]

FYI - I tried this service yesterday twice - and whole heartedly recommend it. I did not follow the route it suggested at first, but it took my movements into account and got on with it. The cost (from checking my bill online) was the stated £1.50 as a text message, and I cannt see any evidence of further charing via GPRS data usage. On the whole - a very good solution to those days when you are going somewhere unfamilar and need a helping hand.