True, but the GR or post code will give you the same country. Depending on a GR it can be as little as 100 metres out which in open country be enough to find someone.
W3W is specifically designed that similar sounding words/location are as far away from each other as possible.
It’s designed to be very precise rather than an area with a reference hierarchy.
Now in a time critical emergency, can you afford the faff ? That’s a different question.
That’s the point. If my cadet gives me a GR that’s in Ohio, I know instantly they’ve made a mistake. Whereas even a relatively minor GR error could place me several, or even tens of kilometres away on the same map sheet.
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I always thought that if you had a modern phone with GPS then then 999 can track your location and see it themselves without needed to be told, so them asking for your location is a backup. So unless you’re using a Nokia Brick then you’re ok.
Also, if your GPS isn’t working then chances are you don’t have signal to make a call nor could you use W3W.
Never heard this one. I wouldn’t have thought so - to my knowledge even VoLTE (i.e. voice over data network on 4G) doesn’t support location metadata.
There are ways of tracing calls based on which cell tower you’re “talking” to, but that’s very imprecise *.
I’m afraid this is wrong. GPS requires that the phone can “see” multiple satellites to get a fix. Making a call requires the phone can make 2 way comms with one cell tower. Completely different requirements.
That bit’s true though - you need a GPS (I guess strictly any GNSS) fix to get a W3W location.
* Edit to add: less imprecise the smaller the cells are - with 5G in a city, it can get reasonably precise. Still no where near the 50cm or so a modern GNSS receiver can manage though.
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Oh yeah, cell site tracking is notoriously imprecise when it comes to a single datum point.
Call data doesn’t transmit your phone’s GPS location, if it did, law enforcement would be very pleased, believe me.
It does it automatically in London, it will give the Eastings and Northings but Inwoikdjy say they are exact. (Close enough to identify a hoax call though).
Really? How does it do that? Surely it only works with phones with GPS? Cell site cannot do that, as it basically gives you the postcode for the cell mast
It must be this, which only works with 999 calls:
That’s clever!
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I don’t ask how, I just use the info
Seems about right.
We can also ping a mobile phone to find out where is it, but that requires a Superintendent’s authority as it’s governed by RIPA, it’s directed surveillance.
Does the phone not keep a record of the outgoing SMS?
Don’t think so, pretty sure it’s the mobile companies that do it on our behalf.
Today I learned - never heard of that one before.
Seems like a skill issue.
Git gud
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