Calgary-based Cell-Loc announced Wednesday its launch of TimesThree, a service company for the first wireless location network in North America.

Unveiled in Calgary, TimesThree's Cell-Loc technology pinpoints the location of someone using a mobile device, such as wireless internet, personal digital assistants, and cellular phones.

TimesThree started doing real-life location demonstrations in Calgary Wednesday, but said it plans to launch networks in the top 42 U.S. centers, and said its wireless internet location service will be available to most cellular users by the end of 2001.

The location services company will be based in Calgary and Dallas, Texas. Its key market is in the U.S., where the race is on to be the first to offer wireless location technology.

Last fall, the Federal Communications Commission that all wireless phone carriers have 911 tracking services in place by October, 2001.

There are currently 67 million cellular, digital and other wireless phones in use in the United States. Every year, those phones are used to make nearly 100,000 emergency 911 calls.

Cell-Loc executive vice president and COO Lew Turnquist said that analysts have pegged the emerging industry at more than $7-billion by 2003 in the U.S., and that TimesThree "will claim a significant piece of that pie."

TimesThree will carry on business relationships Cell-Loc has with InfoSpace, Go2, Systems, trafficStation, OpenGrid and Wysdom, as well as offering its services to L411, fleet tracking, asset tracking, child/senior find and pet tracking.