How to Locate a Cell Number With a Signal

Basically there are two methods of locating cell phones; using Global Positioning System (GPS), which makes use of satellite signals for locating accurate positions, and cell-tower triangulation, which collects data from cell-phone towers that receive phone's signals for calculating its geophysical location. Cell phone triangulation is a useful way of tracking lost cell phones that do not have GPS on them.

Things You'll Need

• Compass
• Geographical map

Instructions

1. Contact your cellular network provider, and ask them to give you the distance of any three towers, for instance A, B and C, from the lost cellphone. These could be any three towers from which the phone receives the strongest signals. It is important that the cellphone is powered on, or else it would not receive the signals from the cellular towers, and triangulation would not be possible.

2. Draw the Tower A's distance from the phone on a geographical map. Now, take a compass and draw a circle, keeping first tower as center and using distance of Tower A from cellphone as radius. Your cellphone can be anywhere in the circle.

3. Repeat the same procedure for Tower B. Then you will have two circles on the maps, and your cellphone is located anywhere along the regions where the circles' circumferences fall on the map. You will see that the two circles will intersect at two different points.

4. Draw Tower C's distance from your cellphone in the same manner. Ideally, after drawing the circle for Tower C, you should get all three circles to intersect at only one common point, which is supposed to be the precise location of your cellphone. However, triangulation is a method that is not without errors, and you might end up get a common region between the three cellular towers and not a pinpointed intersection. In this case, you will have to lookup your phone in the region that is common between all three circles.

Tips & Warnings

• If you're only receiving signals from one or two towers, then you will need a directional antenna from the tower(s) to pinpoint the direction of the lost cellphone, for instance 30 degrees East. With the distance and direction, you can use even one tower to get to your phone.

• Cellphone triangulation is not a very simple process, and you may require assistance from your cellular provider to accomplish this task.

References

• Search Engine Land: Cellphone Triangulation Accuracy is All Over the Map