Vodafone ties up with Tom Tom

VODAFONE tied up with satnav supplier, Tomtom, to provide better information for drivers on exactly how busy specific roads are.

The system comes about following Tomtom's recent acquisition [2005] of a small Scottish company, Applied Generics. That company had software, called Rodin24, which gathers data from a GSM network.

Basically what Vodafone and Tomtom are doing is working out how many handsets are operating in a given area and extrapolating from that how many drivers are stuck on a particular stretch of road.

The system can also work out how fast handset owners are travelling. So if they're not doing about 60 mph on a motorway, the software works out that there must be a problem.

The system is believed to be working already in the UK and the Netherlands. It warns drivers by showing open roads as green and jams as red. µ

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