Optus mobile phones tracked for traffic data

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 08:56

Your IT - Mobility

Optus Traffic View, a road traffic information service based on the movement of mobile phones around the road network, has gone live.

Optus Traffic View provides users with traffic information processed by Traffic Intelligence.

Licensed from UK-based ITIS holdings, the system is based on Floating Vehicle Data (FVD), which comes in two flavours.

GPS-FVD tracks vehicles fitted with GPS devices, while Cellular-FVD (CFVD) simply monitors the movement of mobile phones.

Traffic Intelligence is using CFVD with anonymous data from Optus's 2G and 3G mobile network to cover over 70,000 km of roads.

Company officials explained that while GPS data are more accurate, the larger number of mobile phones on the road can compensate for the relative inaccuracy of cell-based location once knowledge of the road network and the right statistical techniques are applied.

ITIS's technology is based on defence and military intelligence experience.

The established SUNA traffic reporting system uses multiple data sources including traffic sensors as well as in-vehicle data, but the Australian Road Research Board (ARRB) says Optus Traffic View delivers extremely high quality traffic information.

Find out what the companies involved have to say on page 2.