Vodafone first with third-party location service

UK mobile phone users will soon be able to access location-based services from third parties across any mobile network. Vodafone has become the first operator to enable third parties to launch commercial location-based services, paving the way for other operators to follow suit and take advantage of additional revenues. Other operators have already given developers access to location application programming interfaces (APIs) to develop services, but have yet to go live with commercial third-party services. Mobile Commerce, the location-based services company, launched the first third-party service - for celebrity gossip site Peoplenews - with Vodafone this week. The service will allow Vodafone users to text words such as 'bar' or 'club' to short code 80400 and receive an SMS reply with the locations of nearby celebrity hangouts. Steve Page, CEO at Mobile Commerce, said that the service will come into its own when it becomes available on different networks.