Mar/April 2009

A network-independent GSM phone tracking service called Pingz has been launched by Tariffman, a mobile communications specialist and SIM supplier. It is said to be up to six times as accurate as what the company refers to as typical location-based services (phone tracking via one of the network providers).

It works through a small application that is downloaded to each tracked phone. This can detect the signal strength of up to six mobile phone masts in the vicinity of the phone, regardless of which network provider operates them. From these, it can triangulate its position, and the company says it does this much more accurately than conventional LBS, which is limited to the masts operated by a given mobile network.

The Pingz service 'pings' the phone at intervals specified by the user, and presents the location to the user. This is calculated by reference to maps storing the location of the cellular masts, and the company says it is an intelligent system; each position request is stored, and enhances the accuracy of future requests.

The system is said to work with the majority of mobile phones, and can also be linked with GPS to provide enhanced positioning accuracy.

 

It can be offered either as a Web service or on licensed servers specific to the user-company. The simpler Web-based system requires an application download at £10 per mobile, and a monthly licence fee of £1 each. There are also small messaging fees per location fix.

• A broadly comparable cell tracking system for data-only devices from Podsystem was described in m.logistics, issue 36 (August-September 2008).