Vodafone is helping animal owners keep track of their pets with a GPS device and a mobile phone app.

In an evolution of its Curve range, the mobile operator has launched a pet tracker pack comprising a smart GPS tracker, pet features in a smart app, and a clip to attach to the pet’s collar. Owners can securely attach the Curve tracker to their pet’s collar or harness, and continue to track them in real time from the smart app.

Existing Curve users can enjoy the two pet features – Pet Walks, which logs past walks and their distances, and Pet Profile, which stores information such as breed and characteristics at no extra cost as part of the pet tracking option. They can also add the pet tracker clip to their current experience.

The clip includes different sized adaptors to ensure a comfortable, secure fit. Designed for the most adventurous pets, the device is durable, compact and waterproof, rated IP67. The tracker combines GPS, Bluetooth, wifi and cellular technology and is connected to the Vodafone IoT network using a built-in smart SIM enabling pets to be tracked from a distance.

The Curve tracker continues to enable users to set zones such as park or home through the app and receive a notification if their pet enters or leaves these. Using the app, owners can also share access to their pets’ location with other family members and dog walkers for added reassurance.

The pet tracker pack is the latest extension of the Curve smart GPS tracker, which has received five awards for innovation since launching in 2020.

Pets have become an even more central part of people’s lives: pet ownership continues to grow, with an estimated 88 million European households now owning a pet. In a recent survey 86.5% of owners also stated that theirs provided emotional support during the pandemic. Developed with this insight and feedback from pet owners across Europe, Vodafone says this this signals its continued commitment to connecting people to what matters most in their lives.

The pack has been designed for pets by pet owners and built on Vodafone’s scalable IoT platform. With a single app and consistent design language across the Vodafone smart tech range, the global platform enables products, experiences and services to be built once and deployed across markets and categories, making this seamless for the user.

“With pet ownership growing and our customer insights showing that people want to stay connected to what matters most more than ever, Curve pet tracker pack has been developed to give pet owners that all-important feeling of reassurance wherever they are,” said Lutfu Kitapci, global managing director of Vodafone Smart Tech. “Built for ease of use, intuitively designed and connected through Vodafone’s global network, we’ve developed an enhanced experience based on our customer insight for one of the most popular ways to use Curve today – to keep track of our pets.”