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Anyone know of the minimum and maximum accuracy of the cell phone triangulation methods are? This article states that they were getting results from within a f

Anyone know of the minimum and maximum accuracy of the cell phone triangulation methods are? This article states that they were getting results from within a few hundred yards to 1.5 miles And the scariest thing me in the article (besides being able to bypass the auth) is that they were able to send several requests and track movement in near real time. Did they really not have a request limiter in place?

nneonneo 8y ago
No request limiter, but the API was kind of slow (few seconds per update). The API returned an accuracy value, but we found it was often underestimating the accuracy (i.e. when it said "3000m", we were getting closer to 500m).
c22 8y ago
For whatever it's worth, this service was unable to find any location for my phone that only connects over 2g, but had no problem tracking my 4g phone with startling accuracy.
- joewee 8y ago
  There are limited towers / carriers who support 2g. Less data to triangulate I would assume.
  - c22 8y ago
    This is true, but I suspect something else might be going on. LocationSmart said it couldn't find the location of my phone at all, but even if I'm visible to only one tower it should at least be able to narrow it down to the location of that tower.
bitexploder 8y ago
There is coarse and fine location.https://androidforums.com/threads/question-regarding-the-course-and-fine-location-providers.262850/ https://androidforums.com/threads/question-regarding-the-cou... -- generally you will get a coarse location. Carriers can often get a precise location by querying the phone and enhancing the coarse (cell tower triangulation) with a GPS reading. Fine location is not going to be available on all handsets. It will be accurate to like 30 meters. Older handsets or those on 3G may not provide fine location.
bigiain 8y ago
https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/911-wireless-services https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/911-wireless-services "Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending upon the type of location technology used."

nneonneo 8y ago

No request limiter, but the API was kind of slow (few seconds per update). The API returned an accuracy value, but we found it was often underestimating the accuracy (i.e. when it said "3000m", we were getting closer to 500m).

c22 8y ago

For whatever it's worth, this service was unable to find any location for my phone that only connects over 2g, but had no problem tracking my 4g phone with startling accuracy.

joewee 8y ago
There are limited towers / carriers who support 2g. Less data to triangulate I would assume.
- c22 8y ago
  This is true, but I suspect something else might be going on. LocationSmart said it couldn't find the location of my phone at all, but even if I'm visible to only one tower it should at least be able to narrow it down to the location of that tower.

bitexploder 8y ago

There is coarse and fine location.https://androidforums.com/threads/question-regarding-the-course-and-fine-location-providers.262850/ https://androidforums.com/threads/question-regarding-the-cou... -- generally you will get a coarse location. Carriers can often get a precise location by querying the phone and enhancing the coarse (cell tower triangulation) with a GPS reading. Fine location is not going to be available on all handsets. It will be accurate to like 30 meters. Older handsets or those on 3G may not provide fine location.

bigiain 8y ago

https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/911-wireless-services https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/911-wireless-services "Phase II E911 rules require wireless service providers to provide more precise location information to PSAPs; specifically, the latitude and longitude of the caller. This information must be accurate to within 50 to 300 meters depending upon the type of location technology used."