18,000 GPS locations should put new website on the map

ALMOST 18,000 Irish hospitals, petrol stations, ATMs, industrial estates and other points of interest have been mapped and can be downloaded to satellite navigation systems from a new website.

Mypois.ie is adding hundreds of new locations every couple of weeks, and for a fee of €50 the information, including the location of Garda speed traps, can be downloaded to Garmin GPS systems.

The information can be viewed for free on the web and, according to founder of the service John Dundon, the goal is to build up a community of 30,000 to 40,000 users over the next year.

The poor quality of mapping available from companies like Navteq and TeleAtlas, who in turn supply the device-makers like Garmin, TomTom, Sony and Route 66, was one of the main reasons Ireland lagged behind the rest of Europe in the adoption of global positioning system (GPS) navigation. Map-quality has improved significantly in the last two years, according to Mr Dundon, founder of the site, but the points of information (POIs) continue to be "poor".

He gives the example of the "Where Am I" feature on Garmin systems, which is supposed to provide information including the location of the nearest Garda station, but actually points to police stations in Northern Ireland.

Mr Dundon also points out that the time lag between the mapping supplier gathering data and it being released on the device can be eight to 20 months.

"Our experience is that, for many consumers, POIs are as important as the map data itself," says Mr Dundon. "The consequence of this eight- to 20- month window is that establishments that have closed in that period are incorrectly reported, new premises are not listed and it will be another 12 months before corrections are applied."

Mypois.ie checks and verifies all locations against the An Post geo-directory. It also takes data from third parties including food guide publisher Georgina Campbell and IrishSpeedTraps.com.

"We get requests for things like GAA clubs and sports grounds but they are very difficult to geo-code as they don't have a postal address on the An Post system," says Mr Dundon.

Not content with simply providing locations, Mr Dundon says the object is to provide content- rich information such as opening times or in the case of petrol stations which ones stock bio-fuels.

He says the site chose to support Garmin systems initially as it currently has about 80 per cent of the Irish sat-nav market.