Is it possible to track a cell phone location by number only?
Unfortunately, is not at all possible to geographically locate a certain cell phone only through the phone number. But a few assumptions can be made from the phone number only to some extent.
A cell phone number has some hints about the general area or the geographical zone it belongs to. Mobile numbers are segmented by country and the mobile service provider. For instance, a number starting with 00 probably belongs to an international phone on an international provider’s network. The following 3 digits make it more specific in terms of the geographical area. The last seven digits are subscriber-specific and are also used to complete the telephone number.
Thus, though using RA and network prefixes may give hints as to a general area of origin, anything more refined is impossible. A cell phone’s location is instead determined by the cell towers, to which it is connecting and by enhanced positioning techniques.
How Cell Phone Tracking Works?
Cell phone tracking is based on wireless signals and connection data that phone numbers do not disclose. The main methods of tracking mobile devices are.
- Cell tower triangulation – They are continually transmitting to nearby cell towers in the cellular network. This is because location can be determined by measuring the direction and strength of the signal between three towers. It varies from several blocks in cities up to a few miles in the country.
- GPS tracking – Phones that have GPS chips are capable of determining the location of the satellite. It can be accurate within a few feet of distance. GPS consumes more battery but offers higher precision.
- Wi-Fi positioning – There are databases containing information on the location of Wi-Fi hotspots. Even without connecting to them, phones can roughly estimate location by comparing the nearby Wi-Fi networks. Other places can also be inferred though they are mostly indoor places.
- Connection to a cellular module or modem - Applications installed on the phone can in real-time send information about the GPS location or any other information about how and where the phone is being used. Nevertheless, to install such software, physical access is required in the first place.
Of the mentioned common phone tracking methods, none of them can solely use the phone number of the device. Ideally, a tracking app or service would require continual access to wireless data for example cell tower connections, Wi-Fi, or GPS satellites. In these methodologies, there is no importance of phone numbers.
What Can Be Guessed from a Number?
It is impossible to identify the location of a device based on the phone number, but some assumptions about the region can be made.
The first 6 digits of a cell phone number represent a network routing number. This informs the carrier and geographical area that the phone is registered with.
For instance, the phone numbers commencing with digits 310-323 are associated with cell phones in the Los Angeles area. Phone numbers of the 615 area code are associated with Nashville, Tennessee area phones.
With this region code, it is possible to guess that it belongs to a certain city, however, it is impossible to know the exact location. In a city, the phone numbers do not correlate with neighborhood, street address, or any other factor from which location can be deduced.
Even international country codes contain clues to geography. The +33 indicates that the cell phone is French while +91 denotes an Indian mobile phone number. Once more, only the country and the cell provider are discernible – not a concrete location within that country.
Limitations of Number Tracking
Other than basic geographical information, actual phone numbers provide almost no information regarding the exact location of the device or its movement. Several key reasons make phone number tracking unreliable for location data.
- Portability – Number portability rules that enable subscribers to change carriers while retaining numbers. Area codes have lost their meaning of being area-specific.
- IP phones – The telephone numbers for VoIP services are based on the Internet provider rather than the device location.
- Roaming – This refers to the fact that cell phones are always in contact with the best cell, which could be located several miles away from the cell phone’s subscribed geographical location.
- Prepaid/burner phones – These are temporary prepaid phones with numbers not associated with the usage region.
- Number spoofing - Caller ID spoofing tools allow the caller to change the number being displayed on the receiver end.
For these reasons, it is impossible to rely on a number for tracking because there are just too many ways phone numbers can be transferred and masked. Real-time wireless network data are required in the process of accurate phone location and tracking where a phone’s presence is actively transmitted.
Privacy Concerns
They also raise notable privacy concerns about efforts to monitor cell phone locations without the permission of the owner. Although police departments can to some extent request location information from the carriers, other private parties have no legal right to obtain such information without prior consent. A few of the carriers may give restricted location details for emergencies, like, 911 calls. Unauthorized tracking efforts are also punishable under stalking and harassment laws in many states.
In summary,
the phone number alone cannot offer location-tracking functionalities. Only a general area of the network can be guessed with the help of the prefixes of the Internet connection. However, closer triangulation needs cell signal data or GPS coordinates that numbers do not offer. Due to technical restrictions and privacy concerns, it is extremely difficult to use simply the phone number as the identifier in tracking with virtually no possibility of success or legal ground that does not involve cooperation from the cell networks and the target device itself.
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