Mobile-tracking start-up sees "huge rise" in users

A service that allows businesses and consumers to track mobile phones has reported a surge in users since its launch at the end of last year.

VR Meeting is behind the Locate Mobiles and Trace a Mobile services - aimed respectively at businesses and users such as concerned parents - and now claims more than 10,000 subscriptions. Its technology was at the weekend on display at the London Marathon, during which celebrities such as Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Nell McAndrew, Lorraine Kelly and Adrian Moorhouse carried phones to be tracked as part of a project involving the BBC.

At a standard rate of £5 per account per month, or £50 annually, the demand to date translates into respectable business. Jonathan Cook, VR Meeting MD, said that the service works with phones from the UK's four main operators, with negotiations ongoing to include handsets on the Virgin Mobile and 3 networks.

"We're signing up hundreds [of new users] per month and our churn rate is low, which is important," he told silicon.com.

Customers get a Web-based account with a log-in that allows them to see a map with individual phones pinpointed. Accuracy depends on how far away phones are from cell base stations, which use triangulation technology to be accurate up to an advertised 100 metres. Each account can cover five to 10 handsets and users of those handsets - including children - must opt-in, giving their permission by text message or in the post.

Among businesses, typical users are small companies with road-warrior sales forces or fleets of vehicles. For consumers, the typical user is a parent worried about a teenager who they suspect isn't at their friend's revising for exams but instead out getting up to no good.

How do you feel about using phones to monitor your employees - or having your movements tracked by your company? Let us know by posting a Reader Comment below.