Rescue In The Mountains - Even Without Cell Phone Coverage

(Tages-Anzeiger, July 10, 2013)

The new mobile app Uepaa! allows hikers and mountaineers to call for rescue even when they're in a region without cell phone coverage. The app uses wireless LAN to connect the mobile phones of it's users: Whenever hikers get closer than 400 meters, their phones exchange their latest GPS positions and other relevant information like the color of the hiker's clothes. When an accident happens, an alarm can be transmitted from a dead spot via other phones back to an area with cell phone reception. For this principle to work, the app needs to have many active users - and Uepaa! seems to be moving in the right direction: A few days after launch, the app was #2 in the Swiss stores for iPhone and Android apps.