In the previous century, when E911 seemed on the horizon and carriers were looking for ways to pay for location technology, a lot of companies were talking about the coming age of location-based services.

Those services, like E911 itself, have been slow to materialize. But, as evidenced by the CTIA Wireless 2004 show in March, interest is growing not only among vendors but among carriers in how to use the location information inherent in their networks.

Sprint's PCS division announced it plans on providing enterprise location-based services using the Microsoft MapPoint Location Server (MLS) this summer. Bell Canada already uses MLS for commercial services.

MapPoint wasn't the only one making location noises at the show. Among others were Qualcomm with QPoint technology, Polaris Wireless, Networks in Motion, AutoDesk, TeleAtlas and Rocket Mobile.

Polaris has a network-based software product called Polaris Wireless Location Signatures for GSM and TDMA networks, primarily aimed at E911 solutions but with an eye toward commercial services. Polaris has launched its product with Triton PCS and plans a CDMA2000 version in 2005.

Networks in Motion won top prize in a contest put on by Navteq, formerly known as Navigation Technologies, and SiRF Technology at the show. Networks in Motion was picked for its AtlasBook and PhoneLocator products that target GPS-enabled cell phones.

AtlasBook uses GPS technology for real-time turn-by-turn directions, full-color, high-quality maps of the user's location, plus a directory to search for nearby places. PhoneLocator keeps track of a handset's location, placing it on a map with directions available to and from the phone's location.

Rocket Mobile demonstrated its "moblogging" application using Qualcomm's QPoint location services and gpsOne handset technology. The company's RocketBrowser and RocketJournal allow camera phone users to publish a location-aware moblog that shows on a map where a photo was taken. The application uses Qualcomm's Brew.

"Location-based services will be one of the next big categories in wireless application development and the commercial opportunities are wide open for innovative developers to create applications for this burgeoning market," says Gina Lombardi, Qualcomm's Internet Services senior vice president of marketing and product management. "Rocket Mobile's creativity in its usage of both the QPoint solution and gpsOne technology has led to an application for devices that takes advantage of both the current demand for wireless imaging, as well as future demand for location-aware applications."

Autodesk Location Services has a similar application for location-tagging camera phone images using its LocationLogic software and J2ME. The application adds time and location stamps to the photos, which can be stored on a Web site for sharing.

"By offering subscribers location-tagged photos, a wireless network operator will be able to capitalize on a wealth of free, subscriber-generated content that will get shared across its network," says Joe Astroth, executive vice president of Autodesk Location Services.

Sprint plans to use the Microsoft MapPoint MLS partnership to provide location services for enterprises, according to Hugh Fletcher, the carrier's product manager. An example might be a taxi company that wants to provide drivers with the exact location of a customer, or to keep track of where the cabs are located.

Enterprises can develop their own applications for the services, with free access for one year to the Microsoft developer network support, according to Steve Lombardi, MapPoint's product manager. "MLS marries real-time location with best-of-breed maps and integrates with the Sprint location information," Lombardi says.

Fletcher says Sprint has seen interest from its enterprise customers in using location information in their businesses, but so far it has been difficult to integrate behind the corporate firewall. The MLS will solve that, he says. Applications can use Java, Linux, Windows and a variety of open standard software solutions.

To accomplish the integration with Sprint's location database, the carrier will write plug-ins for the enterprise-based MLS.

Lombardi says a number of independent software vendors and solution providers are developing location products for MLS. Among the companies are Cubistix, Immedient and Action Engine.

Cubistix, based in New Jersey, has an application it developed for Pechter's Baking Group for use in managing customer deliveries for its drivers. Cubistix also is working on an application through the Florida Department of Children and Families to locate and deploy caseworkers for children in crisis.

Fletcher says Sprint has not yet priced the location-based service, but wants to "make it a no-brainer choice."

That, he hopes, will put location services on the enterprise map.