Cell phone localization using Cell IDs

Dec 27th

Mobile positioning on smartphones currently uses a combination of at least three technologies:

1.    WiFi positioning
2.    GPS positioning
3.    Cell ID positioning using mobile network antenna masts

The M2M team at Telekom Innovation Laboratories has, with the help of a prototype solution, evaluated a range of services and websites that are open for testing mobile device positioning using Cell ID. This was based on Wikipedia's article on Cell ID.
The services have not yet been evaluated qualitatively as the necessary base data (geoposition and Cell IDs) was not available.

If any of you are currently working on – and maybe struggling with – the localization of mobile devices using Cell IDs as part of your current projects, the following overview contains plenty of links and may offer a helpful introduction to the subject as well as saving you some time on research.
The information in the table might also help you to identify services of interest. You can look into them in more detail to determine whether they are right for your project.

Table of commercial databases

Name and Claim	Coverage	Cost and Licence
http://www.location-api.com/ "Typically we have a global success rate of >96%."	18.053.559 cells 213 countries 1170 operators	First 1000 requests are free (more) Commercial Location-API Customer Agreement
http://labs.ericsson.com/apis/mobile-location/ "The Mobile Location API provides you, as a developer, with client-side positioning."	18.302.737 cells (10.701.768 WCDMA + 7.600.969 GSM) worldwide coverage	First 1000 lookups are free (more) Commercial Terms of use
http://cellspotting.com "CellSpotting.com is a global location based information service for mobile (GSM and UMTS) users."	111.287 cells 591 operators statistics page	free only for personal use terms of use
http://www.navizon.com "Navizon I.T.S locates active Wi-Fi devices throughout a coverage area (site) with higher accuracy than that provided by other technologies such as Assisted GPS and Wi-Fi hotspot/cell tower locations."	device detection by site/node	250 $ each site/month, 25 $ each node/month; 60 $ node setup request licence key via email
http://cellid.telin.nl	133.637 cells 61 countries 165 operators

Table of free databases

Name and Claim	Coverage	Cost and Licence
http://opencellid.org "This project is an open source project, aiming to create a complete database of CellID worlwide, with their locations."	610.168 cells 168 countries 208 operators	free CC Attribution ShareAlike 3.0
http://celldb.org "CellDB is an open database which links the cells that make up mobile networks, to their location."	336.275 cells 242 countries 816 operators statistics page	free Commercial and non commercial
http://www.cellumap.com "Cellumap is a revolution in cellular coverage maps, in that the coverage maps here are not created by the network operators, but rather by the users of the network (ie: you!)."		applications and maps are all free
http://openbmap.org "openBmap is a free and open map of wireless communicating objects (e.g. cellular antenna, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth)."	server stats user stats operator stats	free

If you have any questions regarding this overview, please leave a comment in this blog or contact Lothar Schulz. Lothar is the M2M project Scrum Master and can be contacted at lothar[dot]schulz[at]t-systems[dot]com.

By: Lothar Schulz

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