Bell Mobility, a division of Bell Canada, has launched GoTrax, a service Bell says represents Canada’s first ever handset-based technology that allows resources to be tracked in places where traditional GPS signals don’t work.

GoTrax was introduced at Bell’s 7th annual Wireless Innovation Conference June 1, held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and was designed with transportation, utility, courier/delivery, field service, security, construction and distribution industries in mind.

The service offers businesses the ability to track fleets, field service representatives and other external resources over the Internet with greater flexibility than ever before, the company says.

“Big businesses have used remote tracking services to dramatically reduce costs, and improve productivity and customer service for some time,” said Jim Jacques, senior vice-president marketing, Bell Canada. “We have designed GoTrax as a highly innovative but low-cost remote-tracking solution for SMEs that delivers productivity and service improvements available previously only to major corporations.”

GoTrax uses Assisted GPS – which combines global positioning system (GPS) and Bell Mobility wireless technologies (cellular tower triangulation) – to provide companies with the ability to achieve faster response times to customer service calls, make more efficient use of field force resources, offer added security for mobile employees and leverage investments in existing wireless devices, says the company.

The service aims to ensure reliable location fixes in challenging environments. GoTrax allows you to view the location of your entire workforce on a map with full zooming and panning capabilities. The maps can be customized with an unlimited number of landmarks and set fencing parameters which sends alerts as employees move in and out of a pre-designated areas. GoTrax is a Web based solution, so there is no expensive software or hardware to purchase and no complex installations are required, says Bell.

The service is available across Bell Mobility’s national 1X network.