Sydney, Oct 16 : A new GPS technology will be introduced in australia soon that will prevent drivers from being caught in traffic jams.

Mio, which makes the DigiWalker GPS units, today became the first supplier to announce a range of products that will stream live traffic data picked up at traffic lights and probe vehicles.

The service, called the SUNA Traffic Channel, warns drivers of road accidents, detours and road closures. It was developed by Intelematics Australia, a company owned by the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria, which is looking to supply the data to an ever-growing range of GPS-enabled devices.

Mio's C720t DigiWalker is all set to become one of the first of the in-car GPS units in Australia to broadcast the SUNA traffic data in Melbourne.

A three-year subscription to the service will cost users an additional 129 dollars, and the channel will also be available on a limited number of other DigiWalker models for an additional hardware and subscription fee of 149 dollars.

"We're working with a number of other suppliers. The service is based on an international standard, virtually all systems retailing in Australia are traffic ready or very easily upgradable with software, so we expect a large majority of them to come on board in next 12 to 24 months," said Brian Smith, General Manager for traffic at Intelematics.

The TMS technology is already well-established in highly populated regions such as Europe, where the data is transmitted as a standard FM broadcast, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The traffic channel is set to start broadcasting in Melbourne by the end of the year, but it will not reach Sydney or Brisbane until mid-2008, where it has taken Intelematics longer to iron out some of the technical standards with road and traffic authorities. Users in Perth and Adelaide must wait even longer - until late next year or even early 2009. (ANI)