Smart Person Finder on Surprise Date

Surprise date?

Smart Person Finder can help you. Find out how....

To register in Smart Person Finder, send MYNAME [ur name] to 386. Example: MYNAME Jong

To register your loved ones and friends, send FIND [his/her name] [his/her mobile] to 386.

Example:

FIND Jong 09189208532

To know more about Person Finder, text FIND to 386 or call (02) 888-9105.

Smart Person Finder is available for Smart and Talk n Text subscribers only. Coverage is nationwide.

Smart Person Finder During Out for Date

Going out for a date and don't wanna be disturbed by your parents or by your siblings? Activate your Smart Person Finder now! If you are a non-Smart subscriber, switch to Smart now....

To register to SMART PERSON FINDER, set your name first by sending: MYNAME [yourname] to 386. Example: MYNAME JONG

To register your loved ones and friends, send FIND [his/her name] [his/her number] to 386.

Example:

FIND JONG 09189208532

Note:

Your loved one will receive a notification alert from 386 asking for his/her authorization.

Text FIND to 386 for more info or call (02) 888-9105.

Available to all Smart and Talk and Text subscribers only.

Tracking device leads cops to stolen vehicle

Tracking device leads cops to stolen vehicle

July 05, 2007

Jeannette Andrade

Manila Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines – A stolen Mitsubishi Pajero equipped with a global positioning satellite (GPS) tracking device led policemen to a house in Quezon City yesterday where they found not only the vehicle but five others which could have also been taken from its rightful owners. Arrested in the pre-dawn raid conducted by members of the Quezon City Police Station 6 and the Anti-Carnapping Unit at Mark St., Filinvest II in Batasan Hills were Gilbert Sablan, a driver from Barangay Commonwealth; Leonardo Tablante and his wife, Christine.

The three are believed to be members of what the police said was the Tablante group, the biggest and most active car theft syndicate operating in Quezon City.

The police identified its alleged leader as car exchange dealer and bar owner Rico Tablante. Rico, the brother of Leonardo, was able to escape arrest. Senior Supt. Magtanggol Gatdula, QCPD chief, told reporters that the group could be behind most of the car theft incidents in the city.

Gatdula said his men stumbled into the group’s alleged lair while they were looking for a missing black Mitsubishi Pajero with license plate APL 313. The vehicle is owned by Atoy Laynes, who, according to the police, is the nephew of Philippine National Police deputy director for operations, Chief Supt. Luisito Palmera.

Laynes said his Pajero was stolen at around 9 p.m. Tuesday on the University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City.

Unknown to the suspects, the vehicle was equipped with a GPS tracking device which alerts the owner if the car is being stolen. It also sends out a signal allowing the owner to trace its whereabouts.

The police tracked down the signal to the house in Batasan Hills at around 1 a.m. yesterday and found a black Pajero inside the garage, but with a different license plate—XHX 735.

The police, however, were able to start the car and reactivate the tracking device using the keys provided by Laynes, proving that it was the stolen Pajero. Palmera later positively identified the vehicle at the QCPD headquarters in Camp Karingal, Quezon City as his.

Found along with the Pajero were five vehicles: A maroon Chrysler van, a Toyota Hi-Lux, a blue Volkswagen, a Mitsubishi van and a Toyota Lite Ace. There were also assorted hub caps, tires, spare parts, registration stickers, various gadgets, and several official receipts (OR) as well as certificates of registration (CR).

Gatdula said the Tablante Group first came to their attention two years ago when they arrested a car theft suspect. It was Rico Tablante who allegedly bailed out the suspect.

GPS Security Solution for your family and loved ones

Do you worry about the location of your LOVED ONES?

Do you know where your precious car is?

Improve the security of your loved ones and yourselves through an unimaginable extent. Subscribe to ANTS GPS Automatic Vehicle Location System.

Install GPS Automatic Vehicle Location System to your vehicle now and acquire the obvious security benefits this technology can provide:

a. Spend more time outdue to the fact that you feel safe with a tracking device.
b. Unauthorized access and tracking devices will deter criminals.
c. Remote control functions to give you full control over your vehicles.
d. Have the assurance that your vehicle is safe.
e. Relieves you of the stress as you know the locations of your children and that they are safe with their friends.

Call us now at 8300911 to know more about how you can keep your family safe through SPEEDPOINT.

www.ants.ph
www.gps.ph
www.personfinder.ph

Smart Person Finder by ANTS

How location based services can help you locate yourself
Lost? Your mobile phone can show the way
By Nick Bautista Wilwayco

Finding yourself headed in the wrong direction in an unfamiliar section of the city is pretty common. A less common but more life-critical scenario is when you find yourself wandering off the beaten path in the mountains or drifting out in the open sea.

Lost? You can be found, if you have a mobile phone with a signal.

This was how TV journalist Cesar Apolinario found his way back to his destination, as he recounted in the May 25 Funfare column of this paper's Entertainment editor, Ricky Lo.

Apolinario went to Camiguin Island for a segment of Reporter's Notebook. Camiguin Island is part of the Babuyan Group of Islands, located in one of the northernmost areas of the Philippines , off the coast of Aparri .

"We got lost at sea because Camiguin Island was covered with clouds. For hours, our boat was tossed by giant waves and I thought the end was near," Lo quoted Apolinario as saying.

So how did he and his crew find their way to Camiguin Island ?

Through his cellphone.

"Every time I lost signal," said Cesar, "I knew we were going in the wrong direction, so I would ask the one manning the boat to go the other way. It happened so many times that it took us more than five hours to reach Camiguin Island . Had my Smart cellphone conked out, o kaya nag-low-batt, I doubt if we would find our way there � and back."

Apolinario's presence of mind saved him. A cellphone's signal strength has a direct correlation with its proximity to the serving cellsite. Also, almost all cellsites are land-based. By associating the stronger signal to the nearest dry land, Apolinario was able to provide helpful directions to the boatman.

Fortunately also for Apolinario, he was using a Smart SIM card. With over 6,000 cellsites nationwide, Smart has presence in all cities and almost all the municipalities of the Philippines , among them the remote Camiguin Island .

If a similar scenario happens to you, what will you do? And how does mobile communications technology work in finding a subscriber's location?

The GSM technology
The ability to know where a mobile device is physically located at any given time is an intrinsic feature of the GSM system. According to Mar Tamayo, Smart's group head for planning and engineering, as long as your cellphone is turned on, the network has the capacity to know which is the nearest cellsite serving you.

"Whenever you make a call, your cellphone sends a signal which gets picked up by the nearest cellsite in the area. Your cellphone and the cellsite 'talk' to each other. They exchange information, such as your mobile phone number and your international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), a unique number assigned to all GSM phones, as well as the call's time stamp for billing purposes," Tamayo said.

"The cellsite then relays this its assigned mobile switching center (MSC) where it then 'talks' to other MSCs so that it can find the number you are calling. Whenever this process happens, your information is stored there, along with the cellsite's location code." he added.

Even if you are not using your phone, a cellsite in any area sends out a signal to page all the subscribed mobile phones in the area. It's like the cellsite asking your mobile 'are you still there?' And this is done periodically throughout the day. This is done to manage traffic, capacity, efficiency of transactions and smooth handover to the next cellsite.

Since an operator like Smart knows the coordinates for all its cellsites, the location of the mobile phone can be extracted up to a certain degree of accuracy. In urban areas, the cellsites of a major network like Smart are within 1 kilometer of each other and in the provinces, this can average from 1.5 to 3 kilometers aerial distance.

"While this system is in place as part of the rational operations of any GSM system, we protect the privacy of our subscribers. Specific information can only be given to the subscriber or in the case of our location-based services, to someone he has authorized." Tamayo stressed.

A matter of knowledge and trust
For some years now, Smart has been offering the Person Finder, a text-based service developed with content provider ANTS (Asian Navigation and Tracking Systems, Inc.). Among other things, the service has been designed to allow a subscriber to locate another Smart subscriber � with his approval and permission, of course.

So if you want to find your friend Juan, for example, you only have to type WIS and send this to 386 . A P5.00 per location-based service message sent is charged.

Privacy concerns are addressed: Juan will receive a text message informing him that you are requesting authorization to know his location. Juan also has the option to approve or decline. He can also change the kinds of permission if he wants to via text. On top of this, by typing WIS LIST and sending to 386 , Juan can see the list of persons he has authorized to know his location.

Smart's Person Finder can be your ally when you find yourself disoriented. As the cellsite-based location finder system is tied to a map, the service returns the nearest landmark of your location.

As long as you have a working cellphone with a signal, a good way to locate yourself when you are lost �whether in the city or in remote areas--is to either be enrolled or be familiar with the commands of the available location-based services of your network provider, like Smart's Person Finder.

"Aside from just calling another person for help, you can also provide the general area or a landmark. This can allow for more informed road assistance or in extreme cases, narrow down the area of search and rescue operations," said Ramon R. Isberto, Smart's public affairs head.

"You can also authorize a trusted member of the family or a friend to know your location via the Person Finder. This can be done whenever you are embarking on a journey or if you are going to a high security-risk area," he added.

Location-based services have also given rise to other classes of applications such as Smart's Establishment Finder, a sort of Yellow Page service that can provide street directions and PLDT's F.A.S.T. Track Service, an application that enables businesses to keep track of vehicles, workers, and goods-in-transit. Smart Kid, Smart's brand that caters to children, has the same location-based feature that allows a parent to track his child.

In other countries, location-based services are being used for localized traffic conditions, weather updates, and news as well as enrolled marketing updates for establishments. Applications are also being tested for use in elderly care, assistance for the disabled, tourism, security and forensics.

With the launch of 3G services, broadband location-based add-ons such as graphical maps may even be downloaded in the near future.

GPS in Business Operations

Business is more competitive today and ANTS' GPS Solution is giving companies an edge. Corporate clients find an added value in GPS Solution. Businesses are now shopping for the company that offers GPS Solution.

Below is just a sample of industries that have been enhanced by our GPS Solution:

FREIGHT AND LOGISTICS

· Electronic record-keeping and compilation of fleet operations data

· More productive trips per day, less side jobs

· Better fuel and overhead management through distance reports

CAR RENTAL, TRANSPORT, AND TRUCKING SERVICES

· Automatic route monitor of entire fleet activity

· On-demand location audit

· Driver behavior monitor

· Distress alarm and protection against theft and carjacking

MANUFACTURING AND DISTRIBUTIONS

· End-to-end route audit via snail trail report

· Trip idling detection via overstaying alarm

· Door sensor technology against pilferage

· Event notification to eliminate delays and enable delivery schedulers

RETAIL AND INDUSTRIAL TRADE

· On-line and real-time field activity assessment

· On the dot distribution activity

· Geo-fence alarm to detect deviations on geographic assignments

· Improved field personnel accountability and service response time

ANTS as GPS Provider

Asian Navigation & Tracking Systems, Inc. (ANTS) is the leading provider of comprehensive and innovative solutions for monitoring and tracking of machines utilizing the latest technology in communication, mapping and computing which is essential for strategic, efficient and effective operations.

ANTS first came to life in 1995 as the designer, builder and seller of GPS-based vehicle tracking hardware and software—otherwise known as the AVLS, or Automated Vehicle Location System. While this service was created for use in the business sector, it soon proved to be the catalyst for the development of more consumer-relevant Location-Based Services (LBS).

Committed to making LBS more available for both business and private use, ANTS spent the next three years in extensive R&D efforts. The objective, primarily, was to provide more affordable services. Consequently, the result was the country's first internet-based AVLS platform—which meant that subscribers no longer had to purchase AVLS software to enjoy its benefits. On top of this, ANTS also succeeded in expanding its services beyond mere vehicle tracking. ANTS now offers GSM-based LBS for various applications, including marketing, personnel management, and even personal security.

With a synergy of experienced engineering and communications specialists closely monitoring the technological advances happening in the industry, ANTS is keeping their customers ahead of the pack—recognizing that it is now in an era where technologies are in a constant swing. That is precisely why ANTS offers varied services and yet continues to look for ways of improving its systems and providing its customers with the best. In fact, ANTS committed to developing systems that can be integrated with and customized to any kind of technology--a flexible system that will answer any location-based requirements.