GSID Location for leading global provider of wireless asset tracking services

Challenge

A leading global provider of wireless asset tracking services utilizes global positioning system (GPS) technology to monitor all modes of transit including land, sea, and air. Real-time asset tracking and shipment protection are crucial in an age where the convergence of machines, data, and analytics contributes to a global cargo shipping industry worth $2.2 trillion. Providing reliable, time-sensitive updates to customers around the world is a core business function for this manufacturer, helping ensure shipments arrive on time, no matter the destination.

GPS is a radio navigation-based technology that is the industry standard for tracking and logistics because it determines location, time, and velocity anywhere in the world. This service provider uses GPS solutions in its wireless devices, but they encountered certain unique situations in which accurate GPS data was not available. The signal can be unreliable due to interference, intentional jamming, or other environmental factors like being blocked by physical obstructions in the signal’s pathway. With packages often stored deep inside buildings and carried within metal cargo containers on trucks, trains, planes, or ships, the signal could be severely weakened.

Preserving service quality for customers is a key differentiator for its business. As such, this global service provider needed to address these challenges with additional location technology beyond GPS that delivered reliable tracking information regardless of the environment or situation.

Solution

The global service provider selected Locance’s Global Site Identity (GSID) Location solution for its reliability and multi-source technology that offers maximum coverage. GSID Location delivers global service in more than 200 countries for any device radio type including: Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, NB-IoT, WCDMA (UMTS), GSM, or CDMA. It provides location insights whenever and wherever devices are, including while roaming, and acts as a backup for devices requiring assistance data for first-fix GPS location information. Also, since GSID Location simply utilizes the device’s inherent wireless communications hardware and connection and allows the GPS receiver to remain dormant, no additional power is consumed to obtain a location update. This conserves precious power and extends service life for untethered battery-operated applications.

GSID Location is ideal for Internet of Things (IoT) and other machine-to-machine (M2M) applications and serves as a trusted location resource when GPS signals are unavailable or battery capacity is critical. Locance’s GSID Location solution provides real-time device location utilizing Wi-Fi or cellular network attributes such as site and network identity information. As a result, the global service provider is now able to communicate device location status to customers and its internal systems with greater reliability. With GSID Location, this client can deliver a consistent level of service for customers, vendors, and partners around the world.

The benefits

Locance GSID Location advantages

• Works when GPS signals are blocked or unavailable
• Improved security and protection for shipments
• Fast response times, high yield, and high availability
• Extended battery life
• Enables Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, NB-IoT, WCDMA (UMTS), GSM or CDMA devices
• Delivers cell site and Wi-Fi access point level accuracy
• Continuously updated multi-source location platform in the cloud
• Locates any connected device that can report serving network attributes
• Integrates quickly via RESTful cloud-based APIs
• Data for more than 300 million cell sites and 4.5 billion access points worldwide
• Global coverage spans 200+ countries

The results

By adding Locance’s solution, this global service provider now provides reliable location intelligence to customers throughout the transit lifecycle, from a shipment’s departure to its arrival.

Locance’s GSID Location technology helps our client preserve its quality of service, enhance internal workflows, and maintain long-term relationships with customers, partners, and vendors.

Specific results include:

• Tracking assets without dependence on GPS availability only.
• Extended battery life
• Improved security
• Minimized potential for theft
• Reduced fuel, labor, and insurance costs
• Enhanced workforce effectiveness and productivity

“Locance’s GSID helps us provide location regardless of the conditions to which our device is exposed, thereby preserving our service quality even in the harshest of environments.”

Adam C., CEO

Locance^® is the global leader in cloud-based location services for connected devices. We provide the easiest and most comprehensive multi-source location-as-a-service platform for developing location-based and context-aware applications — without the need for special software or app installations.

Our core location services work seamlessly indoors and outdoors across devices, platforms, and networks. Serving Fortune 500 enterprises and start-ups alike, Locance is revolutionizing the way companies do business. With the broadest reach and largest global footprint, our geolocation solutions deliver unparalleled performance for M2M and IoT devices.