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Location Based Services (LBS) allow the handset to be geographically located and returns it’s positional co-ordinates that can be used to:

• Show a web based user where a mobile phone is located by positioning it on a map, this is particularly useful for corporate applications such as fleet tracking or field worker tracking and can be integrated with job scheduling applications.
• Tell a mobile user about things situated in their current location like stores, petrol stations, mobile hotspots or banks etc.

Coverage

LBS services are available to provide location information on Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and O2 (Three coming in Q2 2006). The service provides a unified location service for the UK.

How Does it Work?

After submitting a request to locate a certain mobile number, the mobile operators’ location platforms provide a result that contains X, Y and Z values. The X and Y are coordinates and the Z value is a radius in metres from point represented by the X and Y. The size of the area depends on the size of the cell, which tends to be smaller in urban areas and larger in less densely populated areas.

To discover more about the Triangle Location Based Services please visit LBS WIKI

If you are hosting your own application, Triangle then return the X, Y and Z coordinates to you via the Internet using your choice of our simple interfaces (HTTP/POST, HTTP/JSON or HTTP/XML). The format of the X and Y is returned as the following:

• Latitude and Longitude
• Eastings and Northings
• Postcode
• Place Names

An example response is listed below:

<?xml version='1.0' standalone='yes'?> <BUSINESS_RESULTS> <API_VERSION>2-3</API_VERSION> <SEARCH_PRECISION>64</SEARCH_PRECISION> <NAME><![CDATA[Belhaven]]></NAME> <CONTAININGNAME><![CDATA[Dunbar]]></CONTAININGNAME> <CONTAININGNAME2><![CDATA[East Lothian]]></CONTAININGNAME2> <POSTCODE><![CDATA[EH421LS]]></POSTCODE> <CONTAININGPOSTCODE><![CDATA[EH42]]></CONTAININGPOSTCODE> <MSISDN>+44##########</MSISDN> <EASTING>368896</EASTING> <NORTHING>678601</NORTHING> <COORD_SYSTEM>GRID_GB</COORD_SYSTEM> <ZVALUE>745</ZVALUE> <LOCATETIME>2006/12/07 10:57:19</LOCATETIME> </BUSINESS_RESULTS>

For the full API intergration with Triangle LBS please visit LBS WIKI

How Accurate is the Service?

Accuracy of LBS varies widely. Mobile LBS services on 2G networks work by identifying which radio transmitter (or cell site) a phone is using, and using the information to give a rough indication of position. The accuracy can be from around 50 metres to a couple of kilometres so applications need to be designed with this in mind. Accuracy is greater in urban areas which tend to have more base stations (radio transmitters).

Service Availability

The platform is monitored 24x7 and our support desk is available to take call from end customers between 9.00AM and 10.00PM, 365 days a year.

Services that locate a mobile phone user must have permission of the user to be located and must adhere to operator guidelines for privacy.