Trevor wrote: > *** I'm not so certain about the <20 years> because your mobile has already > got the [dis]advantage of being easily traced down to the local cell unless > you habitually turn it off when not making calls; the software already > exists and the PTB already use this facility to trace/track people they are > interested in :-(
Actually, it's crucial to the operation of a mobile phone network that the network 'knows' in which cell every single mobile is, otherwise the network would be unable* to establish an incoming call to the mobile. What typically happens is that your mobile calls the network every six minutes to tell the network which cell it is in and a whole bunch of other information such as the signal strength of surrounding cells. When there is an incoming call the network broadcasts a message in the last known cell and likely surrounding cells to try to locate the mobile. Even turning the phone off doesn't really help you, as the moment you turn it on to make a call it tells the network exactly where it is. Terry Streeter NB Arun - Stockton * Not strictly accurate, but the network would effectively have to send a signalling message out on every cell to find out where the mobile was. Given the number of mobile phones out there, the traffic on the cells would consist entirely of the network trying to locate mobiles for incoming calls.
