Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!killer!vector!telecom-gateway From: xrtll!rsnider@nexus.yorku.ca Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Cellular Phones and Big Brother Message-ID: Date: 31 Mar 89 19:56:57 GMT Sender: news@vector.UUCP Reply-To: rsnider@xrtll.UUCP Organization: ISOTECH Computer Industries, Toronto, Canada Lines: 38 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 121, message 1 of 6 Yesterday I sat in my office and had a nice chat with a friend of mine who called my from his truck while driving through Toronto. We talked for about 10 minutes and I noticed that handoff happened about 4 times. In this 10 minutes he could not have driven more than 10 km. This seems to imply to me that the cell areas are about 4 km apart. Afterward I thought about this and relized that the cellular service providers here have a VERY good idea of where you are with your phone. There seems to be a potential here for the police department to locate stolen vehicles with cellular phones in them by simply having the service providers tell them where they are. As well, the phones will respond if polled so there does not have to be a conversation in progress in order to do this. With some fiddling about with the computers, I am sure that the cellular network could easily report location within .5 km since each transmitter maintains a record (or samples) of signal strength relative to other nearby transmitters to decide when to handoff. Unfortunately I believe that if the general public was made aware of how well their location was known if they owned a cellular phone there would be rage and panic, not to mention there is not a thing that can be done about it. I seem to remember that somewhere in the states a company offered a service to find your stolen car. You get this transmitter installed in your car and some police car has a directional receiver that they use to follow your car around if it has been stolen. It never caught on because everyone thought this made people too easy to find even if the car is not stolen. So how many people out there just decided to turn off their cellular phone when they are not using it or expecting calls ? After all, you ARE being watched...... Richard Snider Where: ..uunet!mnetor!yunexus!xrtll!rsnider Also: rsnider@xrtll.UUCP "Hey ! Whats with all the blue lines on the RGB Monitor ???" "Ummm.....Looks like.....well....Ethernet!"