NAVTEQ to map seven Eastern European countries by end 2004

[Dave]

September 2004

NAVTEQ to map seven Eastern European countries by end of 2004

Initiative marks first milestone towards a comprehensive navigable map of Eastern Europe

NAVTEQ (NYSE: NVT), a leading global provider of digital map data for navigation systems and location-based solutions, expects to complete its initial mapping of seven Eastern European countries by the end of 2004. This accelerated build plan is part of the company?s effort to offer a comprehensive navigable map of Eastern Europe which will facilitate pan-European routing.

As the eastern European population grows, there is increased consumer and business interest in navigable solutions to support routing to, from and throughout Western and Eastern Europe. Over the course of the next four months, the company plans to finalise initial navigable maps of the road networks covering major urban areas and their connecting roads in Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Croatia - along with connector road coverage of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. These maps will integrate with existing NAVTEQ maps of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Greece and other bordering Western European countries. The result of this initiative: a navigable map which can route drivers from Barcelona to Budapest or from Rome to Riga.

NAVTEQ intends to begin offering these maps to its direct customers over the next few months.* The release dates are:

- Hungary Q3 2004
- Poland and Slovenia Q4 2004
- Croatia and Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) Q1 2005.

"Our strategy has always been to anticipate and identify countries and cities where our customers want to offer products and services. NAVTEQ?s aggressive build out of Eastern Europe is a direct result of this strategy. Our field team is working hard to make it possible for us to offer this regional product that will allow drivers to route from city to city and country to country" said John MacLeod, Executive Vice President ? Global Marketing & Strategy for NAVTEQ.

* Due to the highly complex process involved in compiling and integrating NAVTEQ maps into navigation systems and location-based solutions, it may take up to one year for consumers to have access to these new maps for their navigation solutions.

[Rattle]

That's good news! Even if those are going to be only connector roads (for the Baltic countries), it is still better that a blank space. Only wonder how long will it take for the new maps to make their way down the food chain.
Apart from that, I'm just not sure how to interpret the "as the eastern European population grows" line. This ah say this borders on an insult :D Did Navteq look at the satellite photographs one day and hey presto! only to find inhabited cities down where they knew just last year snowy forests had sprawled?


Cheers,
Eriks

[Dave]

It all borders down to where NAVTEQ's efforts have been. Most of their effort has been in getting Western European countries to 100% coverage. That is a reality for many countries now, and for those that aren't on 100% coverage, they will be soon, so it now leaves NAVTEQ to focus in other areas, and Eastern Europe is the next key area.

In theory maps should be available within a quarter, so it all depends on which applications will be coming out in 4 or 5 months time which should be the first to have the opportunity to exploit the European maps. Whether there's an extra licensing fee or a higher fee I don't know, so you may still only see Western European countries. Time will tell.

[ultravioletu]

I bet the first ones will be the CDs for the built-in car navigation systems.

We see you’re using an ad-blocker. We’re fine with that and won’t stop you visiting the site.
Have you considered making a donation towards website running costs?.
Or you could disable your ad-blocker for this site. We think you’ll find our adverts are not overbearing!