| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | May, 2000 |
| Founder(s) | Cy Smith |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, USA |
| Industry | Intelligent Transportation Systems |
| Products | AirSage Real-Time Traffic (ART), Travel Times, 911 Locations, Mobile locations |
| Website | www.airsage.com |
AirSage, also known as AirSage, Inc., is a nationwide provider of traffic, location, and movement data in the United States. AirSage calculates real-time traffic speeds and locations using mobile phone signaling data from wireless service carriers including Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless[1]. The company is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
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AirSage collects and analyzes mobile phone signaling data to determine phone locations and calculate traffic flow for over 220,000 centerline miles of roadway in the United States including interstates, highways, and arterials. Cellular networks use geographically dispersed cell towers to provide wide-area radio coverage. Signaling data contains information about the network connection including data about signal strength between the transceiver and the phone, as well as round trip delay times. With this data, AirSage uses a combination of positioning techniques such as signal strength multilateration and triangulation, to generate real-time phone location probabilities. They associate those changing locations over time with Geographic Information System data to generate route segment speed estimates.
AirSage provides a continuous real-time XML data feed to businesses and government agencies using a business to business model. Customers incorporate the data feed into their products in various ways to provide or improve traffic reporting. For example AirSage provides road segment speed estimates with a variable confidence range. Typically, these speeds are converted into Red-Yellow-Green color coding by traffic map providers such as Google Maps.[2]
In contrast, Broadcast media customers such as Westwood One, typically report travel speeds, travel times, incidents, or a combination depending on the traffic programming market.[3]
Government agencies such as state departments of transportation (DOTs) may share the real-time information on their own public website, or use historical data for transportation planning. Typically government agencies are interested in floating car data technology as a low-cost alternative to expensive installation of ground sensors.[4]
The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates how telecommunication companies can use Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI). AirSage co-locates Wireless Signal Extraction (WiSE) servers in their wireless carrier partner’s data centers so that the software can remove individual-identifying information from the signaling data before it leaves the carrier’s network. The company was awarded patent approval for 31 claims regarding a “Method and System for Providing Traffic Information Using Operational Data of a Wireless Network”[5], which includes a description of the privacy module for removing mobile identifying numbers.
This relatively new technology has the potential to help with emergency evacuations, 911 call locations, fleet tracking, and other, location-based services. A video example of one way to display location data captured during the Obama inauguration is available on YouTube.
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