Aug. 6 (Bloomberg) -- America Movil SAB and Grupo Iusacell SA are offering tracking services in Mexico to fuel revenue as wireless growth wanes, pushing everything from panic buttons for buses and taxis to vehicle locators for truckers.

The market for location services is set to grow almost 10- fold in Latin America in five years to $1.33 billion, according to ABI Research. The carriers are hawking the non-voice features now that more than 70 percent of Mexicans have a mobile phone. Text messaging, Web access and tracking made up 21 percent of America Movil’s Mexican service revenue last quarter.

“People-tracking obviously is very often linked to safety and security, which is of course a big concern in developing regions,” said Dominique Bonte, an ABI analyst in Brussels. “The wireless companies should be well positioned to put it all together.”

The government of Puebla state tested the two companies’ satellite technology to keep track of buses after a spate of violence, including six murders. Supermarket suppliers and other companies with truck fleets use the services to monitor their vehicles’ progress. A unit of Seiko Epson Corp. hired Iusacell to track its resellers to ensure they were showing up for work.

The market for people trackers such as the panic button and wireless pet finders will grow to about $245 million in Latin America by 2014, a faster pace than the broader location- services market, according to Oyster Bay, New York-based ABI.

America Movil fell 96 centavos, or 3.2 percent, to 28.80 pesos at 4 p.m. New York time in Mexico City trading. The shares have gained 36 percent this year. Iusacell, which has more than doubled this year, was unchanged at 44.90 pesos.

Bus Murders

Iusacell beat out Telcel, America Movil’s Mexican unit, to supply panic buttons in the city of Puebla, the site of at least six bus murders in recent months. In May, two assailants shot and killed a bus driver who refused to cooperate with a robbery. Four people boarded a bus in June headed to nearby San Martin Texmelucan to rob passengers, then opened fire, killing five.

The panic button works by sending a wireless signal by telephone to police, who can locate the vehicle via satellite.

The criminal threat in Mexico has led some families to buy vehicle-locator services to monitor a teenage driver’s location or help find a stolen car, said Jesus Ponce, the regional assistant director of data services at Telcel.

America Movil and Iusacell, controlled respectively by billionaires Carlos Slim and Ricardo Salinas, target localization services at companies with vehicle fleets.

“We have all kinds of clients - the businesses that use it to be more productive, and the families that want it for safety,” said Gustavo Guevara, Mexico City-based Iusacell’s innovation director.

Ponce and Guevara declined to elaborate on revenue or profit targets for their companies’ location services.

Road Safety

People-tracking is a bigger part of Latin America’s growth in location services than in other regions, probably because of concerns about safety on the road, said Bonte of ABI.

Puebla’s government is considering a subsidy of Iusacell’s panic buttons for about 4,000 privately owned buses after robberies and assaults in public transportation rose to a rate of at least three a week, said Anuar Musalem, operations director for the state’s transport ministry.

Francisco Ortega Teran, a Mexico City taxi driver who has been mugged at knifepoint by a passenger, called the panic button a great idea -- with some caveats.

“It would be very good, as long as you don’t put it somewhere obvious in the car,” said Ortega, who has driven a cab for more than 30 years. “If it’s not hidden, they’re going to give us a beating or a bullet wound.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Crayton Harrison in Mexico City at tharrison5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: August 6, 2009 16:19 EDT