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Is it possible to get the (approximate) location of a mobile phone from an HTTP request

If the memory serves me correctly, Google does this for the map site. I know that the Google Maps application for mobile devices can determine a rough location (I assume using some kind of search in the cell), but it seems that I remember how the site approaches its current location when viewed in a mobile browser.

Does anyone know how this is possible? Does the IP address change based on the tower or area (it looks like they will use some kind of gateway common to the carrier)?

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With a normal HTTP request, the only option you have is GeoIP, but that will not give you the country and operator no better.

Depending on the application and device you are using, there are various options for geolocation, for example, iPhone and Android browsers support JavaScript javascript HTML5, so you can put the code on the page to send you the location. However, they are all associated with some client-side code.

Another option involves a deal with networks, they can provide you with a phone number as an additional header in the request, and then you can request this number through the API from the operator to get the location of the phone with the network. However, for this function they take quite decent pennies, and accuracy can vary from about 100 m in an urban environment to 35 km in very rural areas.

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It's impossible.

1.) Location Please indicate network information.

Even if you get an approximate location from the installed application, requesting information about the network or cell ID, it will not be so reliable. You cannot do anything based on this approximate location.

2.) Location On request IP.

Secondly, in one country, one telecommunications company will have its own local GPRS or EDGE networks, and all devices on the network are connected to the Internet with this gateway. Thus, you cannot rely on location data by IP, because it will be the IP address of the gateway, not the IP address of the device (in the case of EDGE).

Ultimately, if you need to do something based on location, the location must be accurate and not approximate.

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We used Google Gears for some time, and it worked on Windows Mobile version 5.0 plus devices. Google recently stopped this service. Yahoo has now launched something called Yahoo Fire Eagle. Sounds good, not tested yet. I do not have a Yahoo account yet.

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You have Google API Documentation on this subject:

http://code.google.com/apis/gears/geolocation_network_protocol.html

Hope this helps ...

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A bit late, but another option that is not mentioned is to search by MaxMind IP address. Enter the IP address and it will give you the location. There is a free service (with a simple API) that provides city-level accuracy. There is also a more accurate database available for a fee. During testing, I noticed that there are several towers / IP addresses in urban areas, and the MaxMind database is aware of this. You will receive a location as well as a telecommunications provider.

http://www.maxmind.com/

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