[time-nuts] FCC crackdown on GPS jammers

Charles P. Steinmetz charles_steinmetz at lavabit.com
Thu Feb 10 18:51:41 UTC 2011


John wrote:

>I had thought of building a very small one to jam the gps in my
>cellphone so AT&T couldn't tell where I was. But, I believe they use a
>time difference of arrival system. Verizon, on the other hand does use
>an embedded GPS for E911 purposes.

The carriers used to use triangulation from multiple cell towers to 
determine position, but I thought the FCC required greater accuracy 
and mandated GPS (either explicitly or practically) in the E911 
rules.  I could be mistaken.  I think the GPS-based systems fall back 
on triangulation if there is no GPS info from the handset, so the 
carrier still knows where you are with reasonable accuracy most of the time.

Best regards,

Charles







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