Patent ID: 8165773

Claim:
A system for providing an estimated time of arrival to a party traveling between a first physical location and a second physical location, comprising: an Estimated Time of Arrival or ETA notification agent operable to: receive a request to provide to a party an ETA notification at a selected destination; determine the first physical location of the selected destination; determine the second physical location of a mobile communication device associated with the party for whom the ETA is requested, wherein the mobile communication device is a cellular phone in communication with a respective base station and wherein the cellular phone comprises a Global Positioning System locator operable to determine GPS coordinates for the second physical location; determine a velocity of travel for the party for whom the ETA is requested; determine the ETA based on the distance between the first and second physical locations and the velocity; provide the ETA notification to the party for whom the ETA is requested; an ETA service requestor operable to: interact with the party for whom the ETA is requested; determine an electronic address of a second communication device at the selected destination and/or time(s) at which and to whom the ETA notification is to be provided; and a multiplexer operable to transmit, as part of messages normally transmitted when the mobile communication device is in the idle state, at least one of (i) GPS coordinates for the second physical location; (ii) an electronic address of a second communication device at the selected destination; and (iii) a time at which the ETA notification is to be provided; and (iv) the party to whom the ETA notification is to be provided.