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Nov 2006.
LBS Success in Mexico; Telefonica Moviles launches Localízame

Telefonica Mexico, subsidiary of the Telefonica Group, recently launched Localízame, a friend/family finder application for their subscribers in the residential market under the Movistar brand. The early results of the promotional campaign that included television, radio, billboard and print, are extremely positive showing a high level of interest in the practicality of this service.

Localízame, developed by Genasys to Telefonica Mexico's specifications, allows subscribers to locate other Movistar subscribers using any GSM mobile device or using the Localízame web site (localizame.movistar.com.mx). The web site displays subscriber locations on a dynamic map while location requests made by SMS receive SMS responses indicating the street, neighbourhood, town or province of the located subscriber.

Privacy is a key issue for location services so the permission to locate is based strictly on prior consent. Users of the service can define detailed location schedules that determine during what time periods those to whom they have granted permission can locate them. Using simple SMS commands, they can also deactivate themselves temporarily to become "invisible", thus overriding their location schedule at any time.

Genasys, who are also the providers of Movistar´s GPP location enabling server, developed the Movistar Localízame application based on their own white label Find-a-Friend application. "We've found that differentiation is key to each of our operator clients, so our white label applications leave plenty of room for changes to look and feel as well as functionality" observes Angel Montalban, Latin American Sales Manager for Genasys.

Localízame is the first in a series of residential and business LBS applications that Genasys is developing exclusively for Movistar Mexico as part of a project that began when Genasys installed their GPP platform and GeoServer for Movistar earlier this year.

For more information about the Localízame application, go to the Movistar Mexico web site: http://www.movistar.com.mx/servicios/serv_loca.html (Spanish only).