What is GPS ?

GPS services in mobile phones

For nearly a decade ago technology visionaries were talking about a technology that people can use in their cell phones to get direction, track their friends, keep an eye on any special object, kids tracking or simply find the nearest hotel or hospital. Now finally those kinds of services are finally starting with the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) that makes our life simpler and smother.


Besides the so-called social networking service that involves talking in phone or mobiles to simply typing a message people can now easily use their mobile phones in location-based service. So GPS really plays an important role in directing the use of mobile phone a new dimension. 

GPS enables users to type a location and broadcast it to their friends and even the mobile virtual network automatically tracks and alert people about their location. Another service like Geocaching let mobile phone users to participate in a treasure haunt game that guides them to a particular place in search of a cache, whose coordinates are saved on the mobile GPS unit. 

Mobile GPS unit identifies user’s position information with details including latitude, longitude with maximum accuracy up to 15 meters in radius. GPS technology is measuring the exact position of the mobile user more accurately by calculating user's coordinates with the help of satellite signals. 

Subscriber location service – This requires the user to type their address and ZIP code to broadcast their location or to find local business points. If someone is driving in a foreign area and want to find out the closest restaurant or movie theater you might not know the ZIP code of the place and hence several manufacturer are now working closely with leading mobile operators in providing technologies that can track location in case of emergency. 

The mobile tracking service in cell phone allows the user to share their real-time location status, messages, photos and other information with their friends from a mobile phone. The GPS enable mobile phone can automatically updates and displays the location of users directly on a map on the phone. Also the user can get an alert when any of his/her friends comes nearer. 

Safety, Security & Privacy: 

With the growing demand of mobile services the safety and user’s privacy issues holds a huge importance for both operators and users. But with new kinds of technological innovation the issues does not stand firm. Privacy and security are two of most concerned factor as far as establishing mobility through mobile is concerned. The technology also safeguards user’s privacy by allowing merely the known people to track and only when they want to be found. For example, if a subscriber wants to track a phone then the phone number must be used or a text message must be sent to the owner of that phone, who must reply in order to enable tracking. Beside, individual privacy setting allows users to hide him to any particular person.