Do you really know just where your Workers or Children are?

Smartphone GPS Basics – GPS Technological DiscussionUnder FCC rules for emergencies (e911) GPS information, is transmitted only if a 911 emergency call is made. Mobile phones could possibly have GPS and the device might “know” preciselyits location, but it can’t “tell” anyone else where it is, unless connected with a cellular network. To help adhere to Federal Communications Commission rules, cellular phone companies have to be in a position to supply authorities with handset latitude and longitude to an accuracy of 50 to 300 meters. Cell Tower Triangulation does not always meet this condition. For comparison, commercially available GPS systems will be able to acquire accuracy right down to less than 10 meters. This is dependent upon several factors, as GPS signals are often particularly weak and they are affected by numerous factors. With Mobile Location Services (MLS), the GSM cell network provider utilizes triangulation techniques to calculate the location of the cell phone, its accuracy is proven to be less than than that of GPS. MLS is also affected by factors similar to GPS in the sense of the barriers impeding signal quality and the density of GSM towers to assist in the triangulation effort. In rural areas position accuracy may be off as much as a mile. GPS receivers, irrespective of whether inside of a handset, or a dedicated GPS tracking device, calculate position by precisely timing the signals transmitted by GPS satellites. This critical information contains the time the message was transmitted, precise orbital information (technically called the ephemeris), along with the general system condition and calculated orbits of all GPS satellites (technically referenced as the almanac). GPS receivers sometimes take a long time to become ready to navigate after being turned on because it must acquire some basic information in addition to capturing GPS satellite signals. This slow start is sometimes caused when the GPS smartphone has been unused for days or weeks, or has been moved a far distance while unused. The GPS must update its almanac and ephemeris data and store it in memory. The GPS almanac is a set of data that every GPS satellite transmits. When a GPS receiver has current almanac data in memory, it can acquire signals and determine initial location more quickly.

Do you really know just where your Workers or Children are?