[LINK] question re mobile phone tracking

[Geoffrey Ramadan]

Jan

NO

It can only be tracked if the phone is ON. From my understanding, the 
phone needs to communicate to a Base Station it's ID. The Mobile network 
needs to know which cell the mobile phone is associated with in order to 
know where to route any phone calls.

This does not mean it knows its location, only which network cell it is in.

However, I know Telstra has been working on "location based services". 
With this service, you can identify the rough location of the mobile 
phone. I don't know if this means that they can locate a phone at will, 
and I suspect it requires base station modifications so it may not be 
ubiquitous.

Reg
Geoffrey Ramadan B.E.(Elec)
Chairman, Automatic Data Capture Association (www.adca.com.au)
and
Managing Director, Unique Micro Design (www.umd.com.au)

> Can a mobile location be determined if the phone is switched off and 
> the battery still installed?
>
> Jan
>
> Jan Whitaker
> JLWhitaker Associates, Melbourne Victoria
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
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