Patent ID: 8238943

Claim:
An information providing apparatus comprising: a wireless communication section configured to wirelessly send and receive information to and from a moving body terminal; a map information storing section configured to store map information that is map information being divided into a plurality of unit regions, with each of the unit regions being designated as either an information transmission necessary region in which a position of the moving body terminal is required, or an information transmission unnecessary region in which the position of the moving body terminal is not required; and a transmission control section configured to extract map information containing a unit region corresponding to position information indicating a position of the moving body terminal received with the wireless communication section and containing designations for each of the plurality of unit regions as being one of the information transmission necessary region and the information transmission unnecessary region, the transmission control section being further configured to designate the information transmission unnecessary regions as at least one of: (1) a densely populated area with a plurality of the moving body terminals over a prescribed threshold, and (2) an area where the likelihood of the moving body terminal of existing is low, the transmission control section being further configured to wirelessly transmit the map information that was extracted to the moving body terminal using the wireless communication section.