The technology of locating is based on measuring power levels and antenna patterns and uses the concept that a powered mobile phone always communicates wirelessly with one of the closest base stations, so knowledge of the location of the base station implies the cell phone is nearby.
Advanced systems determine the sector in which the mobile phone resides and roughly estimate also the distance to the base station. Further approximation can be done by interpolating signals between adjacent antenna towers. Qualified services may achieve a precision of down to 50 meters in urban areas where mobile traffic and density of antenna towers (base stations) is sufficiently high.[citation needed] Rural and desolate areas may see miles between base stations and therefore determine locations less precisely.
GSM localization is the use of multilateration to determine the location of GSM mobile phones, or dedicated trackers,[3][4][5] usually with the intent to locate the user.[2][6]
Localization-Based Systems can be broadly divided into: