China Mobile Is To Implement Dynamic Cell-ID, LBS Services Need Pay for the Location

“It’s no longer a question of ‘to do or not to do’, China Mobile will implement the dynamic Cell-ID technology sooner or later. ” a friend said this to me, “the solution is there, and it’s just a matter of time because deploying it to the entire network may take a long time.” The reason, China Mobile is not happy that more and more LBS services ‘steal’ its cell location data.

The background – where does the location data come from?

Where does the location data come from? You may say GPS. Fair enough, GPS can give you accurate location (longitude/latitude). But how many mobile phones have GPS chips? All latest smart phones have it, but still it’s a small percentage. It’s the trend to have GPS on the phone, but it may take years (especially in China where many local brands and Shanzhai phones are quite popular). So for majority of phones which have no GPS powered, how to get the location? and the second issue is that GPS needs outdoor environment for better signal, i.e. if LBS services only rely on that, you have to tell your users not to use it inside the building, restaurant, hotel etc.

What you get

Full access to all premium content and our full archives

Members'-only newsletters

Preferential access and discounts to all TechNode events

Direct access to the TechNode newsroom