Infinite Bandwidth has completed development of a demonstrator application of its location-based GPRS application TVaCS, for the exchange of voice messages amongst subscribers "trapped" in a traffic jam, and wishing to escape it.

The application runs on any Java-enabled mobile device (the demonstrator has been developed on a Compaq's iPaqTM platform) and multicasts messages via a dedicated Apache/Tomcat web server, deployed over a Linux server. The thin client can easily be ported to any Java-enabled mobile phones, once multimedia support is available from the vendors, whilst the server, written mostly in Java, can easily be extended and customised.

In addition to dynamically managing user groups and service access, the server collects usage data to enable billing and, in future, load-balancing and over-the-air download. By design, the system is scalable, easy to deploy and extremely low-cost.

With road congestion growing at almost 50% per year over the last five years in the UK (The Economist, Oct. 2001) and a combined subscriber base of over 200m mobile users in the five largest EU countries, the potential for TVaCS is quite large - in addition to targeted applications for vertical markets and large corporate, who would gain almost instant access to a "customisable" infrastructure, at a fraction of the cost.

"Apart from the questionable accuracy and affordability of current traffic information systems" says Marco Massenzio, Managing Director, "once you are stuck, or about to get stuck, in a congested area there is very little you can do. With TVaCS one gains immediate access to up-to-the-minute micro-localised information from fellow motorists in the area, that will enable drivers to take informed decisions so as to minimise inconvenience".