Road America Rolls Out New Location-Based Emergency Roadside Assistance Offering With AT&T

MIAMI, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobile location technology is playing a new role in the evolution of emergency roadside assistance, thanks to an innovative location-based solution developed by AT&T* and Road America, a leading roadside assistance service provider.

Previously, most drivers needed to have GPS units installed in their cars to be located in the event of an accident or roadside breakdown, but a new solution offered by Road America is bringing this important safety feature to any basic cell, landline or smartphone on any network.

Using AT&T Location Information Services, Road America has developed LocateMe Service® to help capture vehicle breakdown locations for customers calling from any wireless or landline communications device. This innovative, cross-carrier offering helps drastically improve the speed, accuracy and efficiency of locating a customer's disabled vehicle through the same telecommunications device used to call Road America's 24-hour Response Centers. In addition, the network-based location solution prevents users from needing to download applications or use a specific platform in order to be located.

"When developing this solution our goal was simple: find a way to quickly and accurately locate disabled vehicles by using the technology drivers often already have on them – cell phones – and we needed to be able to do it regardless of which carrier they were on," said Dennis Fantis, president of Road America. "We teamed up with AT&T to create this revolutionary offering so we are now better equipped to respond to emergency assistance calls with greater reliability and speed, ultimately enhancing our ability to keep customers safe on the road."

AT&T Location Information Services are designed to provide AT&T's enterprise customer base with a highly reliable, operationally managed service where network-based location information can be obtained for wireless or landline communication devices and corporate assets. This service is intended to take advantage of AT&T's cloud capabilities in order to improve operational efficiencies, increase customer satisfaction and control costs for a variety of industries such as financial services, retail, healthcare, education, travel and hospitality and manufacturing.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and around the world. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's fastest mobile broadband network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile broadband and emerging 4G capabilities, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world. In domestic markets, AT&T Advertising Solutions and AT&T Interactive are known for their leadership in local search and advertising.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

About Road America

Road America is a preeminent provider of private label and co-branded roadside and vehicle related services for insurance companies, OEM manufacturers, automotive service contract companies, and other corporations and associations.  Since 1978, they have set the standard for providing high quality assistance services in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico to more than 22 million customers of their 120 major corporate clients.  For USA and Puerto Rico services, Road America provides 24-hour assistance from their Response Centers located in Miami, Florida and Columbus, Georgia.  Canadian services are provided through the Road Canada Response Center in Cambridge, Ontario.  Road America is a wholly owned United States subsidiary of MAPFRE, one of the major European auto insurers, with worldwide revenues in 2010 of over $25 billion US.

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SOURCE AT&T Inc.