How to Track People by Cell Phones

Cell phone position can be tracked by the strength of the signal from phone to towers.

Cell phones are usually within range of more than one cell phone tower, especially in urban areas. It is possible to use the varying signal strengths between the phone and different towers to triangulate the location of the phone. Several cell phone service providers offer cell phone tracking and can use this type of triangulation technique even if the phone to be tracked is not equipped with global positioning system (GPS) technology. You can enable these services if you want to track people in your family by cell phone.

Instructions

1. Sign up to the Family Locator service if you are using Verizon Wireless as your cell phone provide. The service allows you to track the location of all other phones on your family plan. You can map the position of phones on your own phone or on a computer. As of September 2010, Verizon charged a monthly fee for this service of $9.99 per phone.

2. Enable FamilyMap on your AT&T Wireless service plan. You can try the plan on a 30-day free trial, after which, prices and features are similar to Verizon's Family Locator plan.

3. Activate the Sprint Family Locator plan if you use Sprint as your wireless company. As of September 2010, Sprint offered a 15-day free trial of the plan and a monthly fee of $5 after that to track up to four phones.

References

• Verizon Wireless: Family Locator
• AT&T: FamilyMap
• Sprint: Family Locator

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish