S'pore govt to roll out location-based services in Q4

SINGAPORE--Four consortia have been awarded the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA)'s Mobile Positioning and Analytics Services (MPAS) call-for-collaboration launched in May last year.

The four consortia are StarHub and Changi Airport Group, Cold Storage, location intelligence firm YFind and imaging company SangInfo, YFind and Perennial Real Estate, and YFind and department store Tangs, Ronnie Tay, IDA's CEO said, speaking at the Singapore Infocomm Technology Federation (SiTF) ICT Business Summit 2013 held here Thursday.

Tay explained the MPAS had been developed to establish accurate, scalable and interoperable location positioning and analytics services, with the aim of helping retailers and businesses improve customer engagement and services.
Various enterprise and consumer location-based services are expected to be deployed from the fourth quarter of this year, Tay noted.

Under the CFC, all four consortia will leverage location analytics to deliver more interactive experiences for consumers and retail businesses, such as indoor navigational features combined with targeted marketing, Tay noted. Through analytical services, mail operators and retailers will also be able to understand their premises' traffic flow, crowd density and customer behavior, he added.

IDA will also work closely with the consortia to jointly establish an Open Positioning Framework as a common standard of communication between different service providers, which will reduce the cost of future implementation in other venues, Tay said.