Location: Manlio Allegra

Manlio Allegra has more than 20 years of experience in international business development and general management with Fortune 500 and start-up companies. He has worked for companies including Fiat Motor Co, Eli Lilly, Warner Communications and Sega Enterprises. During his career, he founded three successful multi-million dollar software publishing ventures including TecMagik, a $23 million publisher of video games and computer entertainment software; International Development Group, a strategic marketing and software publishing services consultancy for U.S., European and Asian companies; and a joint venture with Sega for the North American market.Mr. Allegra earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an MSEE in Electrical Engineering from the Milan Polytechnic Institute.

Q. Brief us about Polaris Wireless.

A. Polaris Wireless is the global leader in high accuracy, software-based location systems. Polaris is committed to simplifying and improving the process of location of mobile phones for carriers around the globe by serving as the price/performance leader delivering accurate, reliable and flexible products to support a variety of applications. Since 2003 Polaris has been successfully deploying the only software-based location system that meets FCC E911 Phase II requirements. Polaris is backed by venture capital funds Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Draper Richards and Centre Palisades Ventures.

Q. Tell us about the recently launched Polaris Wireless “Hybrid Location Solution”

A. The Polaris Wireless Advanced Hybrid Solution is designed to work in conjunction with A-GPS systems to consistently provide the highest possible accuracy across all environments, especially dense urban and indoor environments, where standalone A-GPS mobile location solutions experience severe accuracy, yield and latency challenges. Polaris’s patented Advanced Hybrid Solution can now locate callers in urban environments with accuracy improvements ranging from 40 to 70 percent, at the 67th and 95th percentiles respectively, as compared to standalone A-GPS. This increased accuracy represents a significant improvement for the industry and is unmatched by other less advanced hybrid solutions.

The Polaris Wireless Advanced Hybrid Solution is available as a commercial, Tier 1 carrier grade, LBS-ready platform supported on fully redundant and scalable off-the-shelf server hardware. Together, these specifications leverage Polaris Wireless’ proven software-based location technology to support pervasive LBS with mass-market location capabilities now and in the future. The Polaris Advanced Hybrid Solution is built to work with all legacy handsets, as well as the next generation of feature rich smart phones as they become available in the market. The Polaris Hybrid Solution works for existing 2G and 3G networks and can be easily transitioned to work with the next generation of networks such as 4G/LTE and WiMax.

Q. Since many providers are deploying E-911 solution today, what is the benefit of investing in Polaris Wireless E-911 location technology?

A. Under FCC standards, wireless carriers using E911 systems must be able to determine a caller's location to within certain distances. While the specific requirements and benchmarks are being debated in the courts, carriers will need to provide greater accuracy for emergency response. Carriers can improve accuracy in preparation for the FCC requirements and to take advantage of the revenue opportunity from emerging location-based services though cost effective technology solutions that close the accuracy gap and work well within a carrier’s existing network infrastructure.

A hybrid solution pairing wireless location signature technology (WLS) and A-GPS greatly improves location accuracy across the complete range of calling environments. In addition to preparing for E911 mandates, a hybrid solution enables carriers to deploy many high-revenue location-based services such as navigation, friend/family finder and mobile social networking. With more than 250 million people using mobile phones in the US, there is growing demand for LBS services. Additionally, the US mobile market is maturing with increasing competitive pricing pressures, churn rates, and the continuing decline of voice ARPU. Deploying a smart location solution can address the E911 requirements and help boost ARPU.

Q. What are the key to your growth strategy?

A. Polaris Wireless has a multifaceted growth strategy, including the following elements:

Continued growth of emergency call E911 applications with other carriers in the US and countries;
Extension into Location-based Services (LBS) with partners and carriers worldwide; and
Further expansion into Lawful Intercept (LI) applications with partners and government entities.

Q. What is your current footprint? What do you see as your main advantage?

Polaris’s E911 systems are deployed with 22 networks across 39 states in the US. Polaris’s systems are also deployed for Lawful Interception in the Asia market.
Polaris’s main advantage is high accuracy, low latency location in a system that is 100% software-based, that requires no changes in the handsets, inexpensive and fast to deploy.

Q. Tell us about your global strategy and the initiatives that you are taking for the development? What are your plans for Asian market in specific, in terms of services and products?

A. Polaris has a global presence, with activities in North and South America, Europe, Middle East and Asia for emergency call services, LBS and lawful intercept applications.
In the Asian market, Polaris systems are already deployed for Lawful Intercept. Polaris has also trialed systems and is actively developing business for emergency call and LBS.

Q. In view of the growing demand, the existing players and rising number of choices, what is Polaris’ USP (unique selling point) to give edge to its products over others? Any latest technological updates you would like to share?

A. Polaris’s USP is the only location solution that can address the challenges of indoor and urban location. A-GPS/GPS and other technologies do not perform well in these difficult environments.

Polaris’s hybrid system marries Polaris Wireless Location Signatures (WLS) with A-GPS to deliver consistent accuracy, low latency and high yield across all environments: indoor, outdoor, urban, suburban and rural

Q. What about possible opportunities and challenges in coming years?

A. The rapid emergence and growth of ‘beyond navigation’ applications, such a social networks and enterprise applications, creates tremendous opportunities for Polaris’s technology because many of these applications are deployed and used predominantly indoors or in urban environments, where the technology works the best

Q. What is Polaris Wireless vision for the future?

A. Polaris envisions a future where greater and greater demands are placed upon the location systems to deliver higher accuracy location with lower latencies. The future also brings wireless consumer devices incorporating a multitude of different technologies (e.g. 2G, 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, UltraWideband, WiFi, GPS/A-GPS). These location demands can be met by the evolving Polaris’s WLS and Hybrid technologies, taking advantage of the all technologies incorporated into future phones and devices.

Q. Your views on where the wireless location-based services market would be in 2010?

A. The key difference for LBS in 2010 will be a shift away from today’s generic navigation applications to a wide array of ‘beyond navigation’ applications. Driven by the trends in social networking and enterprise applications, location becomes a seamless, integral part of many wireless applications and services. A key facet of beyond navigation applications is the heavy usage in indoor and urban environments, where satellite technologies simply do not work.