Security Associates Int’l (SAI) announces an agreement with Airbiquity Inc. to provide portable global positioning service (GPS)-based, handheld location technology working in combination with mass-market wireless phones. The new service will be called StreetSafe and will offer customers personal security services through SAI’s telematic command center. The service will use Nokia phones compatible with a GPS accessory to give location-aware features to users.
The GPS accessory is retrofittable to more than 40 different models of wireless handsets in the market today. With the aid of a Nokia phone, the GPS can send high-accuracy GPS information over TDMA, DCMA, GSM or AMPS wireless networks nationwide during the voice call. After adding the GPS accessory to a phone and a call to the SAI telematic command center, the service is active.
Ray Gross, CEO of SAI, says, “With this relationship with Airbiquity, SAI has transitioned security beyond the traditional boundaries of home and office; now security becomes personal. Now, average citizens can enjoy the same safety that they have for decades in their homes and places of work.”
Dan Allen, president and CEO of Airbiquity, says, “SAI has shown considerable vision and leadership in being the first to truly offer portable location-based services well in advance of its competitors. The wireless network flexibility of our high-accuracy GPS accessory also provides considerable market penetration potential for SAI’s formidable, nationwide dealer network.”
The StreetSafe service becomes available this month. The GPS accessory is expected to sell for $99, with StreetSafe service ranging between $14-$16 per month.