Does your mobile phone know where you are? If so, you can say goodbye to motorway service stations. Many people love them, but what happens if you prefer to break your journey at a country pub? Even if you happen to have a pub guide in the glovebox, you have to stop the car, look at the map to check where you are, and then thumb through the book to try and find somewhere near.

By the time you have done that, a Welcome Break can seem quite welcoming. Soon, you will be able to find that pub using your mobile phone. Its GPS (Global Positioning System) knows where you are, so one text message can bring up a selection of suggested lunch spots - and Oxfordshire IT experts are gearing up to provide the service.

Calvin Hutt and Steven Green, of Oxford Softworks, are poised to tap into what they believe is one of the fastest-growing sectors for IT - mobile telephone information.

If you don't have GPS, the technology can pinpoint your location by finding your nearest mobile phone mast.

Mr Hutt said: "We have taken the entire database from the Good Pub Guide, published by Random House. Our system, called Nearme, lists the ten entries from the guide nearest to where you are.

"At the moment you have to get out your Good Pub Guide, look yourself up on a map and then go back to the book. We take that process, simplify it and put it on the mobile phone."

He admits that people won't need to find a pub more than once or twice a month, but hopes to add enough different information so that some users will need it every day.

"Eventually we will have city and restaurant guides, shopping guides, hotels, days out and even walks."

He added: "It's not like the Internet, where you get every single entry that is relevant. This is specially recommended content, from trusted sources."

The company is now negotiating with Nokia, Orange and other mobile phone companies which will be offering the service, as well as publishers with relevant reference books, such as City Guides.

At first users will pay premium text message rates via their phone bill, but Softworks hopes to launch a subscription service which people can take for as long as they need.

"If you are going on holiday, you might need it for a week or two, but if you travel a lot you might choose to go for a year's subscription, which would be better value," said Mr Hutt.

The pair met while working for a video games company in Abingdon.

Mr Hutt, a former pupil of Henry Box School, Witney, landed a temporary job with Softworks, then based in Burford, sticking labels on floppy disks. Softworks collapsed after the dotcom boom, and he later bought the business as a shell. Earlier this year, Nearme won a £300,000 package as runner-up in a multi-national industry award in Barcelona from navigation software company Navteq, which itself has been bought by Nokia for £4bn.

Chairman of the judges, Mike Short of the UK Mobile Data Association, said: "Nearme stood out as being pragmatic and ready for early deployment. It has been well tested and considered technically and commercially."

At the moment, Softworks consists of the two owners and one engineer in a development studio in Abingdon, and the founders both have a fallback income.

Mr Hutt and his wife own Hampers delicatessen in Woodstock, while Mr Green runs Internet company Greenius.

But far from hunkering down to await another downturn, the pair are now planning to expand, and are seeking £500,000 from investors.

Mr Hutt said: "We are poised for growth, are seeking investment and our advisers will put us in front of various private investors. We are looking to grow to 20 or 30 people over the three years of our business plan."

He admits that it is not the best time to look for funding.

"It is a difficult time but investors are still willing to become involved in start-ups in high-growth areas and mobile phone location-based applications are really taking off. It is a boom time. There is a lot of interest from Google and Microsoft.

"Suddenly, GPS will be available to everyone who gets a new mobile phone. It is cheaper than putting in a camera - that shows the potential for location-based searches.

"It is seen as the biggest growth area in the mobile phone industry, so we are in the right place at the right time. If anyone is going to be well positioned for attracting funding, then we are hoping it is us."