The Ultimate Guide to PNT-based Business Models
From tracking how long our food will take to be delivered to ensuring our e-hailing vehicle arrives at the right side of the road — these are some of the common services that we take for granted today. Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) could be the most under-appreciated technology of our time, but it is gradually becoming the most valuable commodity for consumer businesses worldwide.
The future of services in the ever-evolving digital and connected world revolves around one word: precision.
Whether we are talking about ride-hailing, food delivery, last mile, or even the stock market, all these services require a high degree of positioning and timing accuracy to ensure maximum operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) transmits position and time information from satellites to Earth, providing accurate positioning for navigation and geolocation.
By combining multiple GNSS networks and other complementary positioning technologies, positional errors can be significantly reduced, offering businesses precise positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) information. PNT information is generally free, ubiquitous, reliable, and accurate, making it an excellent base for innovation.
Why precise PNT matters to businesses
For today’s businesses, connecting is no longer about linking two things. It is about offering safer, future-ready, and reliable solutions to customers. With the number of connected objects forecasted to grow to 14.4 billion globally in 2022, the requirement to track, locate and position devices is becoming ever more critical. Adding precise positioning capability to their services is the next step for businesses to remain competitive.
Here’s a list of 10 major business sectors that utilize precise PNT, either as a critical component of their operations, or as part of their innovative business advantage.
Online food delivery platforms
The time element in food delivery operations is vital. Precise PNT enables food delivery platforms to utilize their network of delivery riders effectively, while providing customers with accurate wait time. With precise PNT, the food delivery platforms can assign delivery riders who will reach the restaurants at approximately the same time as the food is ready. This reduces the wait time for delivery riders, ensuring convenient delivery for both the riders and customers.
By understanding the precise positioning of its various entities, the system can even assign multiple deliveries for one rider in a single run if the time and location fit. Such hyper-local real-time operations require an intensive PNT capability, especially to determine the most optimum assignment within microseconds.
For today’s businesses, connecting is no longer about linking two things. It is about offering safer, future-ready, and reliable solutions to customers.
Ride-hailing platforms
Meeting drivers at the right location in the shortest interval is at the heart of every ride-hailing experience. Precise positioning enables precise pick-up and drop-off services. It also helps calculate the best way to get to places with accurate estimated times of arrival based on real-time traffic conditions and disruptions information.
Many platforms utilize PNT to promote safety features for both drivers and passengers. On top of turn-by-turn navigation and real-time traffic notifications, drivers are provided with speed limit alerts and hazard warnings. Meanwhile, passengers are able to virtually share their rides with loved ones through real-time location tracking.
eMobility services
On-demand eBike and eScooter rentals are gaining traction in major cities as an alternative to traditional modes of transportation. Such eMobility services require precise PNT to meet consumer demand, reduce maintenance operating costs, and comply with local regulations.
Tracking the exact position of a bike or scooter in real-time will not only help in locating the micro-mobility device on demand quickly, but will also affect the pick-up and return cost to customers. Service teams should be able to locate broken or out-of-battery devices immediately to avoid service disruptions.
Besides locating devices for riding, replacing batteries and servicing, parking compliance also requires precise positioning. Micro-mobility companies need to ensure their bikes and scooters are properly parked in the right spot as per city regulations to avoid fines.
Logistics
With various telematics and internet-of-things (IoT) devices making use of precise positioning technologies, logistics companies can ensure asset visibility at every stage between point of origin and final destination.
Such visibility allows for improved vehicle fleet management, as well as increasing operational efficiency, by generating significant reductions in fuel costs, maintenance costs and downtimes.
Furthermore, quick response can be arranged for any incidents with precise positioning of vehicles in real-time. In many cases, drivers spend undue waiting time navigating to loading docks due to congestion at the yards/warehouses. Precise positioning also helps regulate warehouse traffic for smooth inflow and outflow of trucks at any given time.
Last-mile delivery
The last leg of the delivery process, which starts from the distribution center to customer doorstep, is the most crucial. Having the accurate location of pickup and drop-off points can save up to 20-30 minutes of delivery time.
Precise positioning technologies calculate the best routes and assist dispatchers in adjusting to unpredictable field conditions in real-time, so that deliveries can be completed without delay. PNT also allows real-time delivery tracking with accurate estimated delivery time so that customers can plan their time better, hence creating more positive transactions.
Courier companies can track the exact location and status of dispatchers on the ground in real time for better resource and time management.
Power & utilities
Electricity grids depend on PNT information to monitor and control generation, transmission, and distribution assets. Any disruptions in the positioning satellite signals can cause widespread outages.
Power companies place GNSS-based time synchronization devices in their power plants and substations for wide-area monitoring and control. By analyzing the precise timing of an electrical anomaly as it propagates through a grid, engineers can trace back the exact location of a power line break.
Healthcare
App-based wearable devices for health monitoring have been trending for the past many years. Many of the wearables are embedded with GNSS chips for precise positioning capabilities.
Heart rate and blood pressure indicators from wearable devices can depend on altitude. Having such precise positioning information will help users better understand their health-related data. Having precise positioning capability in healthcare wearables also allows location tracking. A healthcare professional can take action and quickly send paramedics to the patient’s location in case of any health emergency situation.
Telecom & internet providers
The GNSS chips in smartphones provide location-based services such as navigation, weather forecasting, social networking, games, and tracking services. In case of a GNSS outage, these services would have to rely on wireless hotspots and cell towers, which are less precise.
Wireless telephone and data networks also use satellite positioning time to keep all of their base stations in perfect synchronization. This allows mobile phones to share limited radio spectrums more efficiently. The incoming 5G networks require even more stringent precision timing to coordinate a larger number of small base stations.
Financial services
Major financial institutions need PNT to time-stamp financial transactions, providing a consistent and accurate way to maintain records and ensure their traceability.
The automated systems require accurate timing information in order to track, update, and manage multiple transactions made by global networks of customers. With the help of PNT, banks, payment service providers and other financial institutions can capture accurate location data and detect location spoofing attempts. Every transaction can be analyzed for suspicious activities.
By combining real-time and historical data, patterns of location fraud can be detected and flagged.
As PNT is gradually becoming a commodity for businesses and consumers alike, its value also translates into elevated user experiences and business benefits.
Stock exchange
In high-frequency trading, the faster deals close, the thinner the slice of time needed to accurately price the transaction. Trading intervals of thousandths, millionths and even billionths of a second are commonly measured. This requires a very high degree of timing precision.
The stock exchange markets use PNT to measure these tiny fractions of a second while trading, as well as to track the time when trading closes.
The rise of indoor PNT
Indoor positioning technologies are gaining popularity in spaces such as airports, hospitals, shopping malls, convention centers, and warehouses. On top of improving visitor experience, indoor precise positioning also helps in optimizing resources and work processes.
Since GNSS only works outdoors, indoor positioning relies on technologies such as WiFi signals, Bluetooth iBeacons, Ultra-wideband, inertial sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, barometer), magnetic fields, smartphone cameras, and others.
A combination of indoor positioning technologies will significantly increase PNT accuracy to the highest level. This offers massive innovation opportunity to businesses.
Retail
With the help of accurate indoor positioning, retailers can benefit from real-time consumer behavior data, while improving space and store personnel management.
By placing positioning devices on walls, shopping carts or on personnel badges, real-time customer flow can be tracked. This allows for better queue management as well as prioritization of tasks for frontline personnel.
Understanding in-store customer flows also helps in optimizing product placement and ensures efficient use of store space.
Big retailers operating hypermarkets or department stores are creating omnichannel shopping experience for customers by combining smartphone apps with in-store navigation. With precise positioning capability, a customer simply searches for an item on his/ her mobile; the store app will drop a pin showing the item’s location inside the physical store, down to the exact aisle and shelf area.
Mobile advertising
Tracking visitors’ movements inside malls, airports or any multi-purpose buildings can generate great insights into their behaviors and interests.
Positioning devices placed on shopping carts, for example, can communicate with the Bluetooth identifiers of visitors’ phones; hence targeted advertising can be sent based on the insights collected.
Inside a big shopping mall, indoor positioning allows brands to attract visitors to enter their stores by sending out personalized messages or in-app banners with special offers whenever visitors are within their store proximity.
Smart parking services
Smart car parking platforms utilize precise positioning to assist drivers in navigating through big and multi-level parking lots.
Positioning technology keeps track of a parking lot’s occupancy and availability, notifying drivers of the nearest available space, along with the navigation route.
The technology also helps drivers locate their cars upon leaving.
Real-time business insights are helping organizations enhance operational efficiencies while providing the best services to consumers. As PNT is gradually becoming a commodity for businesses and consumers alike, its value also translates into elevated user experiences and business benefits. The future remains an exciting landscape.
