Paying to be On the Map

This has been coming for a while, though I was unclear on how it would be done. This somewhat cryptic press release from NAVTEQ last November was the first I saw of it:  “New Service Allows Merchants to Directly Access the Widely Used NAVTEQ® Map.”  It announced

a new service called NAVTEQ Direct AccessTM that allows retailers to accurately and comprehensively include all their locations in the NAVTEQ® digital map used by millions of location-enabled consumers around the world every day.

Now, these deals are making the business pages:

Bank of America Corp., metro Orlando’s second-largest financial institution, hired Tele Atlas to make branch locations available via automobile navigation systems and mobile and wireless global positioning devices.

Financial terms of the agreement weren’t disclosed.

[Disclosure: I am a contractor for Tele Atlas.]