Companies AND, EMG and Orion announced the creation of the Global Mapping Alliance

Companies EMG, Orion, and AND, specializing in regional mapping, agreed to unite in a global alliance of cartography (GDMA - Global Digital Mapping Alliance). The headquarters of GDMA will be located in the Netherlands.

The idea to create an alliance that will become a global provider of digital navigation maps, came from AND Company. Experts say that the necessity in such an alliance is determined by high competition from such major companies like NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas.

Now a few words about the participants of Global Mapping Alliance. AND (Automotive Navigation Data - Netherlands) is represented in the Western Europe with a population of more than 350 million people. EMG Company covers the entire territory of China with a population of approximately 1,300 billion people. Orion (Dubai) operates in North Africa and the Middle East on the territory with a population of more than 325 million of inhabitants.

To increase the zone of distribution, companies intend to invite new partners to join the alliance.

It is expected that the emergence of an independent alliance of global mapping will be one of the most important event in the sphere of GPS and LBS-industry. The development of digital cartography ia a multifactorial problem, the successful solution of which requires a complex approach and significant investments in technology development, work on expanding the network and competent marketing policy. Experts consider that for individual providers such as NAVTEQ (Nokia) and Tele Atlas (TomTom) it will be difficult to address such a work.