BERWYN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TruePosition, Inc., a leading provider of wireless location technologies and solutions and a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corporation, today announced the findings of a significant research study conducted in collaboration with ABI Research. The research reveals the benefits of Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (U-TDOA) while exposing the limitations of Assisted-GPS (A-GPS) for locating 9-1-1 calls on cell phones.

The research was conducted by using off-the-shelf cell phones to make more than 3,500 actual 9-1-1 phone calls in two cities in Texas: Frisco and Austin. The testing was specifically conducted to compare the accuracy and performance reliability of U-TDOA and A-GPS in a variety of environments and conditions, including indoors, in cities with tall buildings, and in outdoor suburban environments. Nine test points in Frisco and 10 in Austin were chosen to ensure reasonable representations of subscriber use.

Three different location technologies were used on three different air interfaces: U-TDOA on a GSM network, A-GPS with an Advanced Forward Link Trilateration (AFLT) fallback on a CDMA network, and A-GPS with a Round Trip Time (RTT) fallback on a UMTS network.

“The testing data from Frisco and Austin shows that A-GPS did not perform well when the cell phone making the 9-1-1 call was indoors or when it was surrounded by tall buildings,” stated Dominique Bonte, Group Director of Telematics and Navigation for ABI Research. “In order for A-GPS to locate a phone, it requires that the cell phone have a clear line of sight with the GPS satellites. If that line of sight is blocked by steel and concrete of buildings, A-GPS technology will not locate the cell phone with sufficient accuracy or, most likely, will not be able to locate the phone at all.”

“U-TDOA is the only location technology that can quickly and accurately locate any cell phone in any environment,” said Stephen Stuut, Chief Executive Officer for TruePosition. “TruePosition’s U-TDOA excels in locating cell phones in problematic urban and indoor areas, which makes it the best-suited location technology for use in emergency applications – like locating 9-1-1 phone calls – where lives may be at stake.”

To download the full copy of the ABI Research paper titled, “GPS vs. U-TDOA for Locating 9-1-1 Calls on Cell Phones,” simply visit www.trueposition.com/white-papers/.

About TruePosition

TruePosition (www.trueposition.com) is the global leader in location determination and intelligence solutions that help protect citizens, combat crime, and save lives. TruePosition U-TDOA is a location technology that can accurately and reliably locate any mobile phone in any environment, where other location technologies such as A-GPS cannot. This makes TruePosition U-TDOA uniquely suited to meet the mission-critical location-based safety and security requirements of enterprises and government agencies. These solutions include future-proof technologies, innovative applications, and comprehensive networking and systems services. TruePosition has more patents, technical expertise, and operational experience in wireless location than any other company in the world. Every day more than 100 million people depend on location services supported by TruePosition technology. TruePosition is owned by Liberty Media Corporation.

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