Quote:
|
Originally Posted by cyrnel
The problems with tracing I've run into weren't technical, but motivational. Technically, yes they can track a phone, but other than law enforcement requests they don't have to do it. They don't have a system in place to bill for the service and once they provide it to the public they enter the legal loop of liability. Are you really the telephone's owner and not someone else abusing the system, was the location they provided correct, was the service provided quickly enough, etc. This results in policies that make it very difficult for anyone outside to make use of the capability.
The police work on squeaky wheels. If you had a child in the car that was carjacked then they would likely request location assistance from the cell provider. For what became just a car loss they aren't motivated unless you run into an officer who goes above and beyond. Theft of public property is not one of their high-reward responsibilities.
Not to excuse the fact you couldn't get help. It's incredibly unfortunate and frustrating how we possess these utopian capabilities but are paralyzed by bureaucracy and legal obstacles.
BTW, good to hear you got out okay. That sucks.
|
Glad to hear you are ok!
cyrnel hit the main issue on all points -- it's technically possible, but cell phone companies are rarely motivated to track a phone unless it's a 911 call involving personal danger or national security, things like that. If that's the case, it's a relatively trivial task.
At a very basic level, of course they will have a rough idea where any cell phone is, because it has to record what tower it hit for billing purposes and incoming calls.
At a technical level, TDMA and GSM towers have to know the distance to the phone since it takes RF signals time to propagate, so the timing doesn't get screwed up. If the phone is in range of more than one tower, then the phone can be tracked very accurately. It used to be the case where you basically needed 3 towers and a handoff , but now since timing is in an issue 2 will work, and GPS will pinpoint you. This applies even if a call is not in progress -- the towers have to track you every so often to know where to send an alterting signal (ringing) for an incoming call. Whether or not cell operators have the systems in place to benefit from this capability is a different story, though I'm pretty sure most of them do.
I heard a rumor that only CDMA phones (Verizon in the US) are required to use GPS, and it's probably true. That's because the government requires location transmitting, and CDMA uses code division, not timing, to send the data.