Telcontar Adds China to LBS

Telcontar (CA, USA) announced the launch of its Drill Down Server (DDS) 4.1. The newest version adds China map data and a host of customised performance enhancements that enable Telcontar customers to deploy dynamic location-enhanced applications that meet the region-specific needs of China's burgeoning market.

China presents a significant opportunity for today's wireless, Internet portal and telematics companies. According to the Ministry of Information Industry, April 2006, there are more than 400 million mobile phone users and an increasingly growing demand for in-car and personal navigation systems. As well, there are over 110 million Internet users; second only to the United States.

"With China's Internet and wireless markets booming, there's no better time to enter this market," said J. Kim Fennell, President and CEO of Telcontar. "China's mapping and address data are very different from its US and European counterparts. Traditionally it's been difficult to deploy location-based solutions that meet the specific needs of that market. Our newest software platform solves these challenges by enabling users in China to interact with location-based services in ways that are intuitive and most relevant to their society."

In addition to the building blocks of consumer mapping and routing programs -- map rendering, driving directions, geocoding and proximity search -- the latest version of Telcontar's DDS platform adds a number of new performance features designed to meet China's cultural needs. These features include support for Chinese characters, the ability to look up streets and points of interests and most especially, the ability to conduct landmark-based navigation -- which is the preferred method of navigation in China as many streets are not identified by name.

Supporting the release of DDS 4.1, Telcontar is also releasing map data of China from NAV2 formatted in Telcontar's highly efficient and patented Rich Map Format (RMF), a compact and optimised data format that provides efficient map data access for fast route calculation and map display.