AT&T eyes millions of navigation users in 2 years

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) sees location services such as driving directions as its strongest growth area in mobile data services and aims to have millions of customers in less than two years, an executive said on Tuesday.

"I think location is probably the big growth opportunity," Rob Hyatt, AT&T's director for advanced services, said in an interview with Reuters at CTIA, the annual U.S. wireless show.

Earlier in the day, AT&T, the biggest U.S. mobile network operator, announced a driving directions service based on Global Positioning System location technology and running on the Z9 phone from Motorola Inc MOT.N.

Hyatt said that while it would take time for the service to expand to AT&T's entire portfolio of phones, the service could have "millions of customers" in less than two years.

AT&T, which also offers music downloads and other data services, had previously offered navigation only on business phones such as Research in Motion Ltd's (RIM.TO) BlackBerry.

Hyatt would not say whether the service would be available on the iPhone from Apple Inc (AAPL.O).

(Reporting by Sinead Carew, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)