Cellular service provider Tata Docomo has launched a traffic SMS alert service for its prepaid and postpaid subscribers in Bengaluru. Features: This service will allow subscribers to choose a start and an end destination and a specific time to receive real time traffic information along the route. According to the company statement, the traffic alerts will also include information like speeds at which the traffic is moving along at different areas in the chosen route, along with road accident and event information. Pricing: Tata Docomo stated that subscribers can access this service by opting either for a daily pack costing Rs 1.5 per day, or a weekly pack costing Rs 10/week or a monthly pack costing Rs 30/month. However, it is unclear how one can subscribe to this service since there is no mention about it on the company's official website at the time of writing this article. In addition, it is also not clear whether the service has auto-renewal. Who's powering the traffic alerts for Tata Docomo, and how are they collecting the data? Route Finder This is Tata Docomo's second LBS initiative: it had launched an SMS and WAP driven location based service called Route Finder in its 3G circles and Mumbai in June last year. This service offered route directions in the form of SMS on non-WAP enabled devices and a WAP link with text based directions and route plotted on a map on WAP enabled devices. The telco charged users Rs 5 per request which was inclusive of data charges. Besides this, it also offers a real…
