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I'm making an application that authenticates based on location. For example, you can set a particular location (coordinates) as 'secure location' and when the phone comes within a certain distance of that location, the authentication is said to be successful. I will use GPS for this.

My questions are : 1. Is GPS reliable enough and accurate enough to accomplish this task? 2. In case the GPS lock isnt available, is it possible to get approximate co-ordinates using the cellular or 3G internet? If so , how accurate will it be ? 3. Can you see any other issues with this idea? Thank you.

user1725145
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Aneesh Mohan
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  • How does using cellular network for location work though ?? As I read , it requires consider support. Or is it as simple as using GPS APIs in android ? – Aneesh Mohan Nov 16 '12 at 12:02
  • That question is already answered in Stack Overflow, at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5184877/how-to-find-user-location-using-cell-tower-in-android – user1725145 Nov 16 '12 at 12:30

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  1. It depends on how accurate you want your distance from the location to be. GPS is accurate to within a metre, if good quality signal and not degraded.
  2. If GPS is not available, normally you will get a location based on the cellular network. Accuracy varies, but can be up to 200-300 metres for a UMTS network. For a rural GSM network, accuracy can be as poor as a few km, due to the larger cell size.
user1725145
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  • GPS on smartphones can never give sub-metre accuracy. – PravinCG Nov 16 '12 at 11:27
  • Accuracy is not an issue here. Ill be using it to create secure zones which will be at least 50 sq meters. Are you sure about cellular networks being able to provide 200 meters accuracy ? I heard it gives it in terms of kilometers. And yes this is an app for GPS based on Android smartphone Thanks – Aneesh Mohan Nov 16 '12 at 11:28
  • It depends where you are. The accuracy is higher from the UMTS network than from the GSM, because the cells tend to be closer together. This is valid if you are using triangulation or cell id. It also depends on the network operator - if there is access to WLAN with known locations, then the positioning accuracy will also be improved. – user1725145 Nov 16 '12 at 11:45
  • in theory they could both be exact. You are unlikely to experience "few centimetres" accuracy though. – IAmGroot Nov 16 '12 at 11:54