News
No Escape for Telstra Customers
(03 Jul 2008, BWCS Staff)Australian telco Telstra has developed the antidote to lonely evenings by launching a new location-based service called "Whereis Everyone". In return for a small fee subscribers can keep constant track of friends and family via small maps sent to their mobile devices and consequently arrange meetings more easily, so the phone company says.
The new service uses Telstra's Assisted Global Positioning System and its network positioning system. The idea is that the user can be located whenever his or her mobile phone is switched on and within an area covered by Telstra networks. Should the user wish to be alone, or, for whatever reason, disguise their whereabouts from a wife, husband or partner, the user can switch off the whereabouts button. However, this of course may lead to close questioning as to why the service was switched off and what the user was trying to hide.
Officially Telstra says "The users can benefit from the Whereis Everyone service in a variety of situations like checking the whereabouts of family members, co-ordinating meal times and activities, meeting up with friends in town or after work or even seeing the location of a lost or stolen phone." Alternatively it may just get the user into a lot of trouble with their partner and/or parents.
Telstra says the service is available free to its customers, though they will have to pay AU$0.5 to look-up another user, or AU$2.95 for unlimited look-ups.
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