On 04.09.2014, at 15:21 , Gervase Markham <[email protected]> wrote:
> Every mobile company will have its own internal database of where its
> cells are and what their identifiers are.
> 
> Why do we not make it a condition of launching with a particular partner
> that they contribute this data to MLS? After all, particularly if MLS is
> the location system on their phone, it's clearly in their best interest
> to do so.

We have been talking to some of our partners, but so far they are all reluctant 
to share their cell tower locations with us. The mobile space is one that is 
extremely private and cautious.

One typical concern is that operators don’t want their competitors to know, 
where they lack good network coverage. As the competition might use that 
information to specifically target users in those areas and convince them to 
switch the operator.

We’ll keep pushing on this, highlighting that their users would get a better 
location service as a result of data sharing with us. But in most cases the 
location service in Firefox OS phones is not provided by us but by other 
commercial partners. So in most cases sharing data with us doesn’t give the 
operators a direct and clear advantage.

And than in some cases we don’t actually have a partnership with the operators, 
but merely with ODM/OEM’s launching devices without the phones being bound to 
one operator.

Hanno
_______________________________________________
dev-geolocation mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/dev-geolocation

Reply via email to