Using Machine to Machine Solutions to Build Location-based Mobile Apps for Travelers

Imagine walking down a street after a few hours of shopping and craving a pizza. The street is busy and hosts many different restaurants and retailers, and you aren’t sure where to start. All of a sudden, you receive a message on your smartphone about a pizzeria right around the block featuring a two-for-one pizza sale. Talk about fate – or proximity marketing. Location-based services go beyond social apps like Foursquare (News - Alert). As mobile devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) continue to grow, proximity marketing will become a key trend among retailers, restaurants, emergency responders and other organizations.  

AT&T (News - Alert) and Sabre are collaborating to offer solutions using Hybrid, AT&T’s location information services (LIS), to enable developers to build geo-aware mobile applications. Sabre (News - Alert) is a travel technology company that provides software to travel agencies, airlines, hotels, car, rail, cruise and tour operator companies through its four businesses: Sabre Travel Network, Sabre Airline Solutions, Sabre Hospitality Solutions and Travelocity.

The two companies are looking at how location-based functionality and help airlines, airport retailers and other travel-related companies deliver intelligent, predictive and personalized services. For example, airline staff can be alerted when a high-status passenger is still clearing security, passengers can be alerted about special promotions when they approach an airport store or if they are in a wrong terminal for a connecting flight. All of these have the potential to optimize the traveling experience by making offers more personalized.

"By applying cutting edge technologies, coupled with data analytics and better intelligence, we can give travelers the personalized experience they have come to expect in today's connected world," said Sarah Kennedy, director of Sabre Labs, in a statement. "Together with AT&T, we will explore the role advanced location-based services can have in helping travel suppliers provide better, more personal service to their customers."

AT&T’s Location Information Services cloud-based product suite includes positioning and location solutions that combine cross-provider network-based location information. It consists of two solutions: AT&T Location Information Services packaged Web portals and AT&T Location Information Services API. Organizations can send SMS messages that can facilitate communication with customers about their location, a perfect capability for proximity marketing for retail or safety-based uses, and use the LIS network as a secondary location determination for autonomous GPS – perfect for organizations that provide business services internationally and need to track critical assets or machine to machine equipment.

"Our application programming interface, or API, and software development kit allows companies like Sabre to build multi-carrier geo-aware mobile applications," said Laura Merling, VP of Ecosystem Development and Platform Solutions, AT&T. "AT&T LIS Hybrid works with Wi-Fi as well as existing cellular device-based information location services such as GPS, to deliver near-precise device location information indoors and outdoors."