Am Di 22. April 2008 schrieb Harald Welte: > On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 06:35:28PM +0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Am Di 22. April 2008 schrieb Harald Welte: > > > On Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 05:59:29PM +0800, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > Am Mo 21. April 2008 schrieb Werner Almesberger: > > > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > > > > For many countries there are ageold databases created by hobbyists > > doing > > > > > > antenna-spotting. In Germany, carrier O2 sends quite exact > > Gauss-Krueger > > > > > > coordinates on CBC 221 for each of his stations. > > > > > > > > > > Okay, that's good. So we can have a comprehensive geographical database > > > > > we can put our "GSM n-space" in relation to. (Although no motivation > > > > > was ever stated, I'm assuming here that the goal of the whole exercise > > > > > is to avoid using GPS. Thus we can't correlate vectors we measure in > > > > > GSM n-space to 2D or 3D real-world vectors we measure with GPS.) > > > > > > > > > > Is there something like openstreetmap with these antenna locations or > > > > > does one have to hunt and gather from scattered repositories ? > > > > > > > > Dunno... > > > > > > At least in Germany the location of the cellular towers (especially > > > combined with the information if they're GPRS, EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA) is > > > considered a trade secret by the operator. > > > > Quite obviously not for O2! They at least send Gauss-Krueger for every of > > their BTS, and you may receive this with any simple cellphone. So which kinda > > secret is this then? > > the point is not what kind of actual secret it is. The point is that > you are working in a licensed radio band. licensed to the operator. The > operator can send data on this band all day long, unencrypted. As long > as you have no permission by the operator, you may not legally use that > data! > > > As long as you can legally acquire the info (you also might use a map and a > > photocamera with tagging), and it's not offensive nor copyrighted or mere > > false, you very usually may publish it whereever and in any amount you like. > > the problem is that there is no legal way to acquire that information > unless you have explicit permission by the operator to use it.
At O2, it's GSM-CellBroadcast, this is _explicitly_ _designed_ to be received by *any* cellphone (permission included). Grab your phone, activate Cellbroadcast channel number 221, and if you're in Germany and on O2, you *for* *sure* have *legal* info about the exact position of your BTS. No database needed, O2 is giving it away for free :-) You're not going to say I can buy a simcard + phone at any O2 shop, but I'm not allowed to press the buttons on this phone to enable cell-broadcast. Are you? /jOERG
