Locate me : How?

i was reading about location based services.. and some stuff came up at the web...
Here they are:

But, how can you use the cell to know latitude and longitude?


You can use the cell information of the phone to georeference the user!

a) In Java ME there isn't any standard solution. You can query the CellID (Identification Number) using System.Properties("phone.cid") on some devices only. For example, this doesn't work in Series 40 devices. It only works in some Motorola or Sony Ericsson's phones.

b) In Symbian (Signed), you can get the Cell, Area and the Carrier (see this sample). With this combination you have a unique cell number in the world. You "only" need to convert this information in geographical information. How to do this? Here comes the difficult part. There isn't any direct way to make this conversion. You can use a Carrier API (if they have one), you can use some Open Source collection (like CellSpotting.com) or you can make your own one.

c) In dev cert Python, you can get this information. Just see this sample.

That's what Google is doing with its recently updated Google Maps My Location feature. If you don't have a GPS, you can still find your location using the Cell information. Google can compare your cell number with querys from other users having the same Cell and GPS, for example. So, Google is making its own cell-coordinates database (or buying it).

d) The mobile carriers should bring developers an API to know the coodinates of some user.

e) Use the IP address to find the location of the user. If the user is connected through WiFi (or 3G in some cases) you can try analize the IP address connected to the Internet. With the IP Address you can query some open database (like MaxMind or GeoIP) and then try to calculate where the user is with some error.


There are other solutions...

To see more stuff related to those topics, click here.