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How much is 1MB of data on a cell phone?

Phone mast data cell id?

  • im writing an essay of data privacy...on legislation it states: mobile phone retained data: (d)the cell ID at the start of the communication; and (e)data identifying the geographic location of cells by reference to their cell ID. A GSM Cell ID (CID) is a generally unique number used to identify each Base transceiver station (BTS) or sector of a BTS within a Location area code (LAC) if not within a GSM network. In some cases the last digit of CID represents cells' Sector ID:[1] value 0 is used for omnidirectional antenna. values 1,2,3 are used to identify sectors of trisector or bisector antennas. my question is this How are Base transceiver station's named and what areas do they cover i.e say bristol, or liverpool, would it be a small area say easton, Woolton or large area covering the whole of bristol/ liverpool? is there a way to see which masts cover which area? thanks

  • Answer:

    In Canada, a cell phone company needs permission from the Spectrum Management branch of the Industry Canada government department. They keep a public record of all transmitter sites (latitude and longitude), power levels, antenna specs, etc... I would assume your country has a similar public record of all towers (masts), which might be filterable by frequency, to eliminate non-cell towers. If you get a copy of the table, with a little manipulation in Microsoft Excel, you could export them as an XML file, and import into Google Earth, and view each and every tower, nicely mapped out. Chances are, each tower will have a unique "callsign" or number. They may be assigned sequentially, perhaps prefixed with the owner's intials: (Bell Network) BN01, BN02, BN03 etc... so knowing the number would only hint at it's age, not it's location. Once you've mapped them, it's just a matter of available channels and signal strength. The tower that receives your phone the strongest, will attempt to take control, if a channel is free. If you find one out in a farmer's field or countryside, chances are the number is printed in big bold letters on the side of the shed at the base of the tower, visible outside the surrounding barbed wire fence.

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BTS names can be anything the network operator wants to call them. In smaller systems, they often were given names (internally) but electronically the phone and network only ever sees a number. Later and in larger systems they were only often given numbers... As most cells are now planned by automated tools, the idea of using a basic cell ID + 0/1/2/3 as an identifier for omni and/or cell sectors has frequently disappeared. They just get the next one on the list. The phone just needs the ID of neighbouring cells to know which to go to/report as the next best candidate to go to, when the signal or quality of the current one (that it is using), gets too poor. As for area, a 'cell radius' for a standard BTS can be as little as 0.5km, (eg city center junctions with high buildings near by) and due to density of users, or as large as 15 or 30 Km, if in the country side or out to sea (where there are relatively few users). It is largely determined by how well the signal can get through objects (thick walls or open space) and then how many potential users are in the area. (you may need more for capacity, than simple maximum area coverage etc). Add to these traditional BTS Cells, the smaller ones Minicells, Microcells, PicoCells for shopping centers, shops, offices and railway stations /airports and now the latest in Home BTS's called Femto cells (eg Vodafone SureSignal), and the area can be smaller and smaller still. As no normal user can access the cell-id, it is an internal ID used by the phone and the BTS to navigate around the system, not sure where the data privacy angle comes. The phone system as a whole is highly secure - not least because operators don't want theft of their airtime, and EU/ ETSI regulations demand constant encryption of the users phone calls. Likewise, Billing data is secured and held in separate data systems from the network management. Tracking data for Police requests, is yet a separate function, not normally part of the system operation and enabled on demand as a specific function and legal request. The system only needs to know where to go next and then disposes of the information (except for consolidating billing records - these are per cell and time in that cell before being consolidated into time for a single call). See here for a map of all BTS's anywhere in the UK, who operates them and if they are 2G (900 or 1800 MHz) or 3G (2100 MHz). The idea is to locate best coverage for your home or place of use. http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ - OFCOM site finder maybe you can explain where the data / privacy concern is ?

Andi

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