Is Mobile GPS Tracking Accurate?
When someone speaks of GPS tracking, most people automatically think of car systems, but mobile GPS tracking is becoming more popular, especially for children. A mobile GPS tracker is a unit that a person carries on them and therefore can be tracked wherever they go. In other words it's a person tracker that does not rely solely on the location of a car. All cell phone carriers after 2005 had to have a GPS device in them, however this device simply allows you to triangulate the cell phone and determine your location in around 100 meters, however this accurate information is generally restricted and only activated if a 911 call is made. There have been however, many advances made to mobile GPS devices in the last 5 years that now makes it very possible to find the exact location of a person.
There are now many GPS-enabled phones in production, Motorola and Blackberry being the first. In order for these phones to function, you need to be on a wireless network like AT&T or Sprint. If you are on this grid and have a GPS-enabled phone, you can be tracked, and this method is especially popular for business people being tracked by their companies. There are also lines of GPS-enabled phones by Disney or Wherifone that cater especially to children and others that are designed to track the elderly.
Additionally, there are other tracking services available related to these GPS-enabled phones. Location based services can tap into cell phones and provide a web site where you can track someone's location, however they can only tell you the last location the person was at and there is no guarantee of what service they can offer beyond it. Accutracking is an example of an LBS, and it can be used with Motorolla or Blackberry phones that are on the Sprint network. Sprint/Nextel phones can also be tracked on Mapquest Find Me, which is an online site that can document a person's mobility history. These same phones also offer Mobile Locator, whereby you can locate your friends from the same network in real time on a map on your screen.
Mobile GPS tracking may not always be very accurate though, so be careful how much weight you place on its information. First of all, it can only be done with the permission of the phone user, and this permission may have restrictions. GeoFencing means that a phone will only be tracked if it's in a certain district. If it's too close to home, it may not track, and if it passes certain boundaries, you may be notified but it will no longer be tracked. Also, if there is no accurate satellite location found, the best you might get is the last known location. Finally, your service provider usually uses mapquest maps, which are available for all parts of the world, but your provider may only have access to American ones, limiting your tracking abilities. It can be a very helpful device, but there are a lot of conditions that need to be met.
Mobile GPS tracking has come a long way in the last 5 years, and you can upgrade most cell phones to become mobile trackers, but without the right phone, on the right network and being in the right location, tracking another person may not always be 100% reliable. It is however, a point in the right direction, so if you're searching for a lost child or an elderly person has wandered off, it will at least get you close.
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