Mobile phone tracking is a way of asserting the location of the phone, may that moving or stationary position. Detection of the location will occur using via a multimedia signal received and sent to several radio towers near the phone or via GPS. To locate the phone by using the multi alteration of radio signals, the device must send a roaming signal to the nearby antenna tower, and you don’t have to have an active phone call to do so. GSM system is based on the phone signal strength of the close antenna masts..
Mobile position may be determined by location-based services such as LBS information service or by checking the data from the social network which enables the use of geographical accurate geolocation and position. It is the most used technology of telecommunication companies.
The tracking technology is based on measuring the nearby signal and antenna patterns, with the concept of wireless communication with the nearby base station which implies that a certain phone is nearby. The advanced systems use more advanced ways of calculating the signal location by interpolating signals between adjacent antenna towers that can provide accurate information about the location down to 50 meters in urban areas.
There are other methods of determining the mobile phone carrier location. It can be network, handset, sim based, through the combined use of all, and WIFI. The network-based location tracking is used by determining the use of the user's service provider network infrastructure. The advantage of this method is that it can be implemented in a non-intrusive way without affecting any kind of handsets.
Hand-set-based location tracking works by reading the information of client-installed software on the head-set. This method determines the location by using cell identification and signal strengths of the home and neighboring cells that are continuously sent to the carrier. These phones usually have built-in GPS that gives better accuracy of the location.
This method requires approvement and cooperation of the mobile phone subscriber. Devices that work in such a way are usually smartphones like Symbian, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, BackBerryOS IOS, or Android.
Another method that can be used to track down the phone is by using the SIM data in the GSM. It is possible to get raw radio measurements from the handset. Some of the available measurements can be Cell ID, round-trip time, and signal strength.
WIFI data is the most used to determine the handset location. Poor performance of GPS in the indoor environment and increased popularity in WIFI created opportunities for inventing other methods of location detection. Like Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), GPS, GLONASS, and others. The hybrid method is a method used by combining all other methods of tracking to determine the location of the mobile phone.