Vodafone teams up with TomTom to bust traffic jams

Dutch satellite navigation company TomTom has developed a traffic information system alongside telecoms group Vodafone to help drivers avoid traffic jams.

The agreement will see TomTom's in-house technology use information from the Vodafone's network in the UK to provide information on the speed and direction of cars travelling on all major roads across the UK. The company said that customers will have a better understanding of the exact traffic situation and be able to plan and change their route instantly to avoid traffic congestion.

"This will clearly improve the daily travel experience of our UK users," Harold Goddijn, TomTom's chief executive officer, said.

TomTom, maker of portable navigation devices for cars and mapping software for handheld computers, said the real-time travel information service will be launched in the UK the first half of 2008.

The company, which will offer the service in the Netherlands in the second half of this year, aims to make it available to 50 percent of its users in Europe by 2008, a spokesman said.

"The deal was expected and more deals are in the works as TomTom's strategy is to roll out this service in all countries in which it is active," SNS Securities analyst Martijn den Drijver wrote in a note.

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