It Is Estimated That In 2010, Revenues from Location-Based Services Will Reach EUR 622 Million and Account For 1.8 Percent of the Non-Voice Services.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c42690) has announced the addition of "Strategic Analysis of the European Mobile LBS Market" to their offering.

What are the latest developments on the European LBS market? We forecast that LBS revenues will grow by 50 percent annually. In 2010, about 18 million users will subscribe to location billing plans. This 150 page strategic report gives a complete overview of 24 European markets and in-depth case studies of the LBS strategies of seven leading mobile operators. Gain detailed insights about the complete LBS value chain spanning from technology vendors, solution vendors and mobile operators to content providers, service providers and application developers.

Highlights from the report

- Overview of LBS offerings, market strategies and equipment in 24 European markets.

- Case studies of the LBS strategies of 7 leading mobile operators.

- Complete update on location-based regulatory and standards in Europe.

- Update on the latest developments of location technologies.

- Revenue forecasts for the European market by segment until 2010.

A few years ago, most observers believed usage of mobile location services in Europe would increase rapidly, but this has not happened yet. In 2005, about 5 years since launch, revenues from mobile location-based services (LBS) amounted to roughly [euro] 144 million. However, a few location enabled services already show much promise in some European countries: handset based navigation and location-based billing of voice calls and mobile data.

Several important drivers can finally bring about a breakthrough for LBS in general. Mobile network operators increasingly seek new ways of maintaining ARPU as the price for voice calls decline due to increased competition and regulation and LBS can definitely contribute to new revenues. EU E112 regulations require location of emergency callers and has prompted operators to install positioning technology in their networks. Although there is no minimum positioning accuracy requirement yet, all operators have to provide basic location information, typically Cell-ID based. The evolution of maturing business models also make more LBS possible for various customer needs. Finally, maturing technologies, especially handset performance, enables dramatically improved customer experience of the services.

We estimate that in 2010, revenues from location-based services will reach [euro] 622 million and account for 1.8 percent of the non-voice services. Location based billing of data and voice calls is not included in this figure and adds an additional potential. Although location-based billing of voice calls may not be introduced in all European countries due to specific market characteristics, location-based billing of data transfer can be launched on a wider scale in order to effectively compete with fixed-line services as 3G networks are upgraded with increased bandwidth.

Until now, some of the foremost reasons for the slow service uptake of location-based services have been lack of performance and low customer awareness. Services have simply been too slow and complicated to use, or have provided little cost benefit compared to alternatives. Operators have generally performed little marketing of location-based services and many services are hard to find even if the customer has a general awareness of their existence. Nevertheless, operators are now increasingly integrating services with their portals, which increase visibility.

Companies Mentioned Include:

- 3 Group

- O2 Group

- Orange Group

- T-Mobile Group

- Telenor Group

- TeliaSonera Group

- Vodafone Group

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c42690