Location Based Services Impacting Your Daily Life

Location Based Services (LBS) covers a range of applications that depend on the location of the user. Mapping, finding products or services, learning about a new area, or finding stolen property or lost pets are just a few examples of where LBS applications are highly useful.

According to the latest edition of the GSA GNSS Market Report, 70-percent of all mobile phones worldwide will have GNSS capability by 2020. Galileo enables receivers in phones and other mobile devices to have improved location accuracy and reliability, even in challenging environments like urban canyons or rural areas.

Do you know how much LBS has an effect on your daily life?

Here are a few examples:

• Accurate positioning: In cities, everything is mapped. From streetlights to oil drilling to lines on the road, everything is mapped out and accuracy is extremely important. In municipalities, environmental organizations and oil and gas companies, mapping is especially crucial, and these industries impact the daily lives of millions of citizens. Accurate positioning helps to make intelligent decisions, and also keeps things running smoothly in urban areas. Watch the video!
• Emergency situations: Knowing your location in an emergency can save your life. With LBS, even if you don’t know your exact location, Galileo can send it to first responders. Emergency workers rely on LBS for precise positioning in order to respond to calls as quickly as possible. This can be crucial if you’re a victim of a crime and cannot speak on the phone, but can call an emergency number where your location will be sent and help will be on the way within seconds. Watch the video!
• Tracking: Tracking devices utilize LBS, providing the exact position of pets, children, vehicles and other items. Accurate tracking devices mean you’ll never lose anything again, and additional satellites from Galileo provide even faster and more accurate positioning. Watch the video!
• Advertising: Location based services allow advertisers to target users based on location, providing the most helpful recommendations and services to individual users. For example, if you’re visiting a new city, you can open an app while you’re walking down the street and see restaurants in the area targeted to your preferences. Watch the video!

These are just a few examples of how location based services permeate your daily life. The increased satellites that Galileo provides enable accurate positioning in challenging environments. From remote landscapes like mountain hiking trails to dense city streets, the accuracy of location based services will be improved – keeping users safe and on track no matter where they are.

More Information

Media note: This feature can be republished without charge provided the European GNSS Agency (GSA) is acknowledged as the source at the top or the bottom of the story. You must request permission before you use any of the photographs on the site. If you republish, we would be grateful if you could link back to the GSA website (http://www.gsa.europa.eu).