i am looking for a cots battery operated tracking device, but not one that uses GPS signal, one that uses the signals of nearby cell towers. anyone know of such an item? i would then download the data later to identify the path the tracker has taken, etc.

 

To the best of my knowledge cell towers don't transmit their location so you couldn't use them to define a location. The company running them can identify which tower a phone has registered with and they know the location of the tower so they can locate the phone.

 

To the best of my knowledge cell towers don't transmit their location so you couldn't use them to define a location. The company running them can identify which tower a phone has registered with and they know the location of the tower so they can locate the phone.

my cell tower app (Network Cell Info Lite) on android gives me MCC TAC MNC ECI LCID, i should be able to ID this tower location from somewhere online. can you triangulate via relative signal power being received ? the "map" feature also put my phone location on a goole map with a line drawn from my location to the cell tower location. however, my phone has both cell and wifi data access, so perhaps i am being mapped by online data, maybe GPS but i am currently inside and GPS no worky here. i suspect though, will not be 1m accurate like GPS.