TrafficCast China ( Shanghai ), the developer of a vertically integrated traffic information system in China, announced the deployment of the world's largest cellular probe system in Shanghai today, in strategic partnership with China Mobile, the world's largest mobile carrier with 437.5 million mobile subscribers.

The anonymous mobile phone position and signaling data in China Mobile's GSM Network are collected, analyzed, and converted into travel time and speed information for major highways and surface streets in Shanghai. The current system collects cellular data from 10 million China Mobile subscribers in Shanghai, and covers all the roads within the Inner Ring Area, which has 483 miles of major roads and more than 1,700 roadway segments.

Congestion is becoming a major problem in China. The government agencies and the commercial sector are increasingly trying to find more efficient ways to access reliable traffic information. This implementation in Shanghai is the first step towards a proposed nationwide roll-out with China Mobile, which will for the first time provide a cost effective method of generating highly accurate real-time traffic information in major cities and inter-city freeways and state roads in China. This will enable China to leapfrog Japan, US and some European countries, which rely heavily on traditional sensor technology in terms of traffic data collection. The continuation of this deployment will further support the 2008 Beijing Olympics Game and 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.