Jim Haney wrote:

Is there any way to find the physical location of a mobile phone to within 15 or so miles? We're a basic SIP shop, but I was wondering if something like SS7 would get me some of that info. I don't want to rely on GPS or wi-fi, and it doesn't have to be precise. Mostly just trying to find out what city the phone is in.

No, cell tower triangulation (not very precise) and GPS (quite precise) are the only means available to locate cell phones technologically, and those are available only to operators. Triangulation can be done passively, but its precision varies considerably, although the tolerance is certainly within 15 mi. GPS coordinates require triggering some action on the phone to transmit the location it has determined itself to hold via the GPS signal to the network, which is done on many phones in case of a 911 call and/or by way of various special applications (Google Maps overlay, etc.) SS7 does not carry any information as to the location of the handset or any of its specific characteristics, nor does its message format contain any support for that. It is designed purely for interoperation between telco network elements. -- Alex Balashov - Principal Evariste Systems Web : http://www.evaristesys.com/ Tel : (+1) (678) 954-0670 Direct : (+1) (678) 954-0671