How Locator works
Locator determines the location of a mobile device based on one of the three types of mobile device data, in the following order of priority:
Locator returns the location of the mobile device as a circle: the coordinates of the center (latitude, longitude) in the WGS-84 system and the circle radius in meters.
When determining the location, the mobile device may actually be outside of the area indicated by Locator. The information reliability depends on the area.
The service can't determine the location in an area it doesn't have any data about. In these cases, it returns an error message.
Input data
1. Wi-Fi access points signals
This is the most accurate way to determine the location. The average accuracy is 50 m.
Information about the Wi-Fi access point:
- MAC address.
- Signal strength.
2. Mobile network signals
The accuracy of the location is determined by the density of base stations in the area. Base stations are the most dense in the city centers. In these areas, the accuracy ranges from 200 to 500 m. As stations become less dense and reception conditions deteriorate, the accuracy decreases and becomes 1500-2000 m on the city outskirts.
Information about the mobile network base station:
- Country code: MCC (Mobile Country Code).
- Mobile network code: MNC (Mobile Network Code).
- Location code:
- For GSM and WCDMA: LAC (Location Area Code).
- For LTE: TAC (Tracking Area Code).
- ID of the cell the mobile device is connected to:
- For GSM: CID (Cell identifier).
- For LTE and WCDMA/UMTS: ECI (E-UTRAN Cell Identifier).
- Cell signal strength.
3. IP address
The IP address of the mobile device assigned by the mobile internet carrier.
This method of determining location is the least accurate, because the location is the same as the area of the subnet the IP address belongs to. The mobile carrier's subnet usually covers an area with a radius of at least 5 km.
If the IP address in the request is missing or invalid, Locator uses the sender's address from the IP packet header. This address may be substituted by the proxy server the IP packet passed through.