Aboutwe, Fujitsu Asia, MobileOne, and V3 TeleTech Collaborate to Develop Nature and Heritage PDATours in Singapore

Singapore, November 10, 2003

A consortium, led by Aboutwe Publishing, a specialist in the tourism related publishing and events, and Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd., a leading regional IT&T infrastructure developer, today announced its collaboration of four companies to introduce an innovative Location-based Service (LBS) called the Mobile-Assisted Guide (MAG), to enable students, tourists and the general public to experience wonders of nature and heritage.

The two other partners in the consortium are MobileOne Ltd., a leading mobile service provider, and V3 TeleTech, a leading geographical information and location determination technology developer.

By pairing MAG with eco-tourism, the collaboration provides locals and tourists with a novel way of exploring Singapore's nature and heritage, in the form of PDATours. They are not only able to view tour details and information, but also enjoy other services such as trip planner, and personalised user tour preference, among others.

Said Mr Chng Teo Hye, Group Chairman and Co-CEO of Fujitsu Asia, "This partnership leverages on Fujitsu's strength as a technology provider in providing solutions such as MAG that are simple, yet effective in enhancing tourism in Singapore. It also reflects our commitment to working with our partners to benefit the community with new and innovative technology."

Each tourist will have access to a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) from PDATours, signs in and activates a selected tour. Once the GPS (Global Positioning System) Locator in the PDA is activated, it will periodically scan for the tourist's position.

The tourist uses the PDA like a personalised tour guide, and the system will automatically alert the tourist on points of interest. By using GPRS, the tourist can then download the location map, pictures, information and even relevant local myths and stories.

The tourist can also jot personal remarks onto the PDA and at the end of the trip, retrieve his remarks by logging on to the PDATours portal.

A wide variety of tours have been designed on Singapore's nature and heritage such as the impregnable fortress at Labrador Park, identification of plants and birds at national parks at Botanic Gardens and Pasir Ris Park and outdoor adventures at Pulau Ubin.

Mr. James See, Managing Director of Aboutwe, said: "Our MAG will empower the users to have the knowledge in their hands, to choose the right level of thrill, create a unique experience for oneself and maximize the value of the trip as well as a great learning opportunity."

Other than providing a technological innovative way of touring Singapore, PDATours can be used for school bio-science field trips or historical heritage lessons, where students will gain additional knowledge with timely information at their fingertips.

The GPS in PDATours tracks the student's exact location and matches it with related facts or myth around that location. Games and quizzes can be incorporated into the PDATours, creating a fun-oriented learning experience.

In December 2003, 40 students and 20 local residents from the North East CDC, 10 tour guides and 10 tourists will be participating in the PDATours Trial program. Residents and students interested in the trials are welcome to participate, and may write to admin@aboutwe.com or call 67423511.

Mr Adrian Long, General Manager of V3, said "Geographical Information System and Location Determination Technology have increasingly been successfully used to assist in business related work processes. By applying these emerging tools to the nature and heritage location based initiative, we hope to bring a totally new and exciting experience to the community at large."

PDATours is developed under the Call for Collaboration (CFC) initiative for location-based services, as part of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA)'s Wired With Wireless programme. PDATours has created attractive value-added services for the tourist, which not only makes their tour in Singapore more memorable, but it also appeals to tourists who enjoy self-discovery and adventure.