Another Cellular Victim

[Mike McNally]

Jef Poskanzer writes:
 > It looks like at least some switches in Amerika are already equipped
 > to read out locations for individual phones.  

This is not actually that surprising.  All they need is to know which
phones are using a band on a cell site, and they narrow the search
down to a relatively small area.  I seriously doubt that they can do
triangulation (I mean, they *could*, but there's not much likelihood
that the cellular operators would incorporate something complicated
and expensive but useless into the system), though they could easily
track movement by noting the progess of a phone as it was handed off
from cell to cell.

 > They probably don't even have to wait for you to make a call - they
 > can call you, or even use the phone's automatic pings.

This would be a little scary, though possible.  The problem could be
dealt with by ensuring that a phone always gives off an audible alarm
when it's contacted while on-hook.  Or, of course, you just turn the
phone off.

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