SUNA use growing; service improvements coming online

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 31 August 2010 18:26

Your IT - Mobility

A raft of improvements to the SUNA Traffic Channel service are arriving at a time when the number of compatible navigation devices is exploding.

Usage of SUNA Traffic Channel, the service that provides live road conditions data to navigation devices via FM radio or the Internet, has grown dramatically since its introduction in 2007.

Initially only available in Melbourne, the service now also covers Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, plus adjacent areas, giving it a footprint that extends to 95% of the capital city population.

More than 800,000 SUNA-enabled devices have already been sold, with a total of 3.5 million expected by the end of the 2010-11 financial year. The service is widely supported by factory-fitted and aftermarket navigation devices (as well as smartphone navigation apps), and Intelematics - the company behind SUNA - expects more than 30% of GPS devices will soon be using the service.

"We now supply to several of Australia's leading car manufacturers such as Ford, Nissan and Toyota as well as aftermarket in-car navigation brands like Pioneer, Eclipse and Alpine," said Intelematics CEO Adam Game.

"Clearly we've moved into the mass market," he added.

So what will SUNA Phase 2 deliver to drivers? See page 2.