TIA welcomes one of its newest members, Rx Networks!

Founded in 2005, Rx Networks is a private mobile positioning technology and services company headquartered in Vancouver, Canada. The company develops mobile software and delivers data services designed to accelerate the location performance of any GPS-enabled device. Rx Networks focuses on the fast growing Location-Based Services (LBS) market, specifically GPS-enabled mobile phones and personal navigation devices sectors. Conceived and developed to yield a Click’n Go!™ GPS user experience, Rx Networks’ GPStream™ solutions help speed up initial GPS location acquisition times dramatically, reduce battery power consumption and improve performance in limited satellite signal strength conditions.

Working with NASA/Jet Propulsion Labs, the GPStream framework of real-time and synthetic Assisted-GPS (AGPS) reference and assistance data solutions are licensed, endorsed and/or deployed by global mobile operators, major network equipment vendors and a growing number of GPS chipset manufacturers, such as Nokia Siemens Networks, Qualcomm, Ericsson, NEC, STMicroelctronics and Atheros.

Click here to see information about Rx Networks' products.

Guylain Roy-MacHabée, President and CEO, holds a Masters EE and has 20 years sales, business development and operating experience in public and private high technology companies, including Ericsson, Nortel, PCS Wireless, Broadband Networks and Global Locate. He’s held senior executive roles in private and public companies, including president of TML Ventures and several years as vice president with Intrinsyc Software. An avid sailor and Past Commodore of an international offshore sailing association, Mr. Roy-MacHabée has been involved in the mobile GPS space since the early days of mobile data.

Mr. Roy-MacHabée spoke with TIA Network staff about Rx Networks.

Please tell us the value you gain from your TIA membership.

Rx Networks joined TIA to have the opportunity to meet and network with communications technology leaders and to participate in the development of new standards related to location based services.

How does your Location-Based Services technology work?

Global Positioning System (GPS) technology constantly aims to improve Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF), receiver sensitivity and power consumption. Fast initial acquisitions, long battery life and accurate positions, even in challenging areas such as urban cores or indoors, influence the growth of LBS, whether for non-networked platforms such as personal navigation devices (PND) or GPS-enabled handsets. The most significant evolution in recent years, AGPS significantly improves GPS performance by taking advantage of an existing communications link to the device, whether wireless or via cradle, to download “assistance data,” essentially a copy of what the GPS satellites are transmitting. Providing this “ephemeris” data to the device helps it bypass the bulk of the initial GPS signal acquisition delays, thereby yielding faster TTFF, lower battery drain and higher sensitivity.

Rx Networks has developed a unique service and technology framework, called GPStream, capable of delivering AGPS assistance data for virtually any real-time and/or synthetic assistance requirement. Rx Networks is the only global GPS assistance data provider focused strictly on assistance solutions, enabling broad compatibility with the industry’s leading AGPS server and AGPS chipset technology vendors. This enables operators, service providers and terminal vendors to select the best infrastructure and/or semiconductor partner for their requirements, knowing that Rx Networks can supply the necessary assistance to best match their selection.

Rx Networks has a number of Technology and Commercial Partners.  Please tell us how these relationships are important to the success of your business.

The company first secured a preferred partner relationship with NASA/Jet Propulsion Labs in 2005, enabling wholesale and real-time access to all the data being transmitted by the entire GPS constellation. This allowed the company to develop its own innovative GPS assistance data solutions and tailor them to virtually each major network equipment vendor, as well as across any GPS chipset vendor architecture. In preparation for the expected growth in the GPS-enabled mobile phone and personal navigation device market, most of these vendors have either become resellers, licensees or technology partners of Rx Networks, including

• 2005: Nokia Siemens Networks, Qualcomm
• 2006: NEC, Openwave, Hewlett-Packard, ZTE, SiRF
• 2007: Andrew Corporation, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Ericsson, Infravalley, Atheros
• 2008: STMicroelectronics, NXP

On the mobile operator customer front, Rx Networks already serves companies like Telus and SoftBank KK in Japan with its GPStream GRN (Global Reference Network) service. With the AGPS industry standard now implemented in most new mobile phones, GSM and WCDMA mobile operators are actively launching Assisted-GPS features in their networks in 2008. As the selected partner and supplier of Assisted-GPS data by most network equipment vendors, Rx Networks is poised to take on a leading enabling role in the deployment of AGPS by mobile operators and service providers.

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