A study of LBS accuracy in the UK and a novel approach to inferring the positioning technology employed

Using data collected from three UK operators (O2, Orange and Vodafone) this paper incorporates population density, provider-claimed accuracy, achieved-accuracy as determined using a reference network and base station parameters to form an extremely comprehensive empirical study of currently deployed cellular network-based positioning technologies in the UK. The paper also demonstrates how the aforementioned parameters can be combined in an attempt to infer the positioning technology used by a particular operator. The data collection was completed using a mobile phone and a GPS-enabled PDA running a purpose-built piece of software, thereby providing the means for continuously assessing the operators’ progress in improving upon positioning accuracy. Positioning data for dozens of LBS requests were collected in both a densely and sparsely populated area of the UK. The data collected during this experiment indicate that a direct correlation between population density and both claimed and actual accuracy exists. Using inference based on all available parameters, it is shown that sufficient information exists to infer the positioning technology in various locations.