• shortwavesurfer
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    8 months ago

    Yeah, I did see that last paragraph. I’m not sure if people realize just how accurate a location can be gotten just with that method though.

    • h3ndrik@feddit.de
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      8 months ago

      Sure. In urban environments the cell tower should be able to determine your location down to a few meters or at least tens of meters. They know the angle from which antenna is in use. And I think I read an article or paper that newer technologies also compensate for the signal delay introduced by the speed of light and your distance… So the phone can hit the slot in the multiplexing correctly. So distance from the cell tower should be known to both parties somewhat precisely. No “active” positioning requests needed. I think requesting the location during an 112 / 911 call has also saved some lives already. I’m not sure if it pops up automatically for the dispatchers, though.