Operator offers $30M for location-based services

Michelle Donegan

December 9, 2008

1 Min Read
Vodafone Snags Wayfinder

7:20 AM -- Vodafone Group plc (NYSE: VOD) will splash out SEK239 million (US$30 million) to buy Swedish location-based services specialist Wayfinder Systems AB , the operator announced today. (See Vodafone to Buy Wayfinder.)

Mobile data is one of Vodafone's key growth areas, and the operator thinks location-based services will play a part in that. Vodafone, like other operators, has room to expand mobile data service revenues. Mobile data services accounted for just 7 percent of Vodafone's overall revenue in the six-month period ended September 31 this year. (See Vodafone Adjusts to Hard Times and Carrier Scorecard: Vodafone.)

Wayfinder's services are available in 19 languages and have more than 2 million users. Vodafone says it will use Wayfinder's technology to develop new "location-aware services."

“The Wayfinder software enables mobile phones to display user-friendly maps as well as deliver voice directions to drivers in the same way as dedicated navigation devices," said Pieter Knook, Internet services director of Vodafone Group, in a press statement. "We believe our customers will greatly value being able to get accurate voice directions from their mobiles."

— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

Subscribe and receive the latest news from the industry.
Join 62,000+ members. Yes it's completely free.

You May Also Like