Phone Tracking Concepts

Cell Phone Location Tips – GPS Technology Info In order to conform to Federal Communications Commission guidelines, cell phone companies are required to be able to deliver authorities with smartphone latitude and longitude to an accuracy of 50 to 300 meters. Cell Tower Triangulation doesn’t always meet this condition. For comparison, commercially available GPS modules are able to obtain precision down to less than 10 meters. This is dependent upon many factors, as GPS signals are often pretty weak and are disturbed by numerous factors. With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cellular network provider uses triangulation techniques to estimate the location of the handset, its accuracy is proven to be less than than that of GPS. MLS is further affected by factors similar to GPS in the sense of the barriers affecting signal strength and the density of GSM towers to assist in the triangulation effort. In rural areas location accuracy may be off as much as a mile. GPS receivers, whether within a cell phone, o

r simply a specific GPS tracking device, estimate position by way of precisely timing the signals passed on by GPS satellites. This critical information contains the moment the message was transmitted, precise orbital details (formally referred to as the ephemeris), as well as the basic system state and rough orbits of all GPS satellites (technically referred to as the almanac). GPS receivers sometimes take longer to become ready to navigate after being turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to finding GPS satellite signals. This delay is sometimes caused when the GPS device has been turned off for days or weeks, or has been moved a far distance while turned off. The GPS must update its almanac and ephemeris data and store it in memory. The GPS almanac is a set of data that every GPS satellite transmits. When a GPS receiver has current almanac data in memory, it can acquire satellite signals and find initial position faster.

To track a cell requires a number of major ways of establishing cell phone position. GPS (Global Positioning System/Satellites), Triangulation, and CellID. These technologies convert cell phones into mobile tracking systems. These types of systems can be considered Network Based, Handset Based or possibly a Hybrid technique. GPS location is Handset based because it requires applications installed on the smartphone together with GPS hardware. Triangulation and CellID are Network Based as they use the equipment and information from the cellular provider. Hybrid systems integrate methods to produce best use of available information and to help make perform faster.

Phone Tracking Concepts