Quote:
Originally Posted by JKingGrim
Google does not triangulate with cell towers. That would require cooperation from the carrier. Google just looks up the location of the tower you are currently using. It cant be done without a data plan.
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It's possible to keep a local database of cell tower IDs and their locations but such a solution has its own set of technical considerations. Should you try to provide an experience with the most coverage by storing a fairly complete database of the cell towers and their location or should you only store the information that is most local to the user? In either case there's maintanance considerations with getting the user to update their local data from time to time either because of new towers coming into existence or because the user has wondered outside the area that is covered by their local database. (Note: OpenCellID.org provides an open source solution for location based on CellID).
And location data is pretty useless without maps. In
prototyping a Windows Mobile program to track people I made a system that used SMS to share location but I still needed a data connection to get the maps. Also with this program since it used SMS to communication location to different mobile devices unless every one had unlimited SMS the cost of using the program could become expensive relativly quickly.
Bottom line is a program of this nature needs to be implemented using data to provide an acceptable user experience.