Re: Location Escrow anyone ?

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

>>ZURICH (December 28, 1997 4:12 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Swiss
>>police have secretly tracked the whereabouts of mobile phone users via a
>>telephone company computer that records billions of movements going back
>>more than half a year, a Sunday newspaper reported.
>
>Don't be fooled that this is a swiss only problem. It's being done here in
>Amerika right now.

The FCC has issued a ruling that will require all cellular telephone
carriers to provide location information on all 911 calls. By the year
2001, this location information is to provide 125 metres of accuracy 67%
of the time.

Helping emergency services locate 911 callers is a great excuse for 
installing  a cellular location system. Even better than the excuses they 
gave for eavesdropping-ready digital switches and limits on encryption.

An accuracy of 125 meters seems quite impressive considering the facts
that cellular channels are plagued by very long multipath dispersion and
that a narrowband FM signal is much less than ideal for calculating delay.

- --------------
Kay Ping
nop 'til you drop

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3ia
Charset: cp850

iQEQAwUBNK4a2hHPAso8Qp7tAQFI1wfRARzxzUTRWkuETjkWrz7Gh4StMEwhCZ6C
Nzh2i2ymTq2/hMMdx7L8tuc2N5wISlBjzJtJGKnyQTHYJs6SMkvYLQa89H4v4MyH
9NJK6wSqx1OLEmgPwCoJWo8NUkH1jwPvhRfb+A/KE3raYazMd1fY+EgL/P3R216s
j0F0RsPUFvMS3m+/j5rKFoatuG1Qc6b2p8QnQLxgxyePoEScEEcfxiCrGGH75YEF
5yiJMi11LraUnDyJtZ/9xVXAFAEjLM9IYyCapfleIEUNisu9Iu3R9V/FIBdEom3O
uL7we6ETWSrYCFxdmrDq64q7wi1ygN/d1IvIFgNzSol/D9Y=
=czyT
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

At 1:35 PM +0000 1/3/98, Kay Ping wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>>>ZURICH (December 28, 1997 4:12 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) - Swiss
>>>police have secretly tracked the whereabouts of mobile phone users via a
>>>telephone company computer that records billions of movements going back
>>>more than half a year, a Sunday newspaper reported.
>>
>>Don't be fooled that this is a swiss only problem. It's being done here in
>>Amerika right now.
>
>The FCC has issued a ruling that will require all cellular telephone
>carriers to provide location information on all 911 calls. By the year
>2001, this location information is to provide 125 metres of accuracy 67%
>of the time.

The FCC may have ruled it, but its doubtful that the carriers can provide it.  Doing better than than a cell sector will depend on many factors, including: specific technology (analog, GSM, CDMA, etc.), frequency and local propagation characteristics, especially multipath conditions.

>From parallel discussions on the cryptography list:

800 MHz analog may be the most difficult. GSM perhaps can reach 500 meteres under ideal conditions (Andreas Bogk).  IS-95/CDMA probably a bit better than GSM due to the very high data (chip) rate and spread spectrum's better multipath characteristics, although the system's multipath performance most improves communications not ranging (Phil Karn, Qualcomm).

--Steve

PGP mail preferred, see  	http://www.pgp.com and
				http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

RSA fingerprint: FE90 1A95 9DEA 8D61  812E CCA9 A44A FBA9
RSA key: http://keys.pgp.com:11371/pks/lookup?op=index&search=0x55C78B0D
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Schear              | tel: (702) 658-2654
CEO                       | fax: (702) 658-2673
Lammar Laboratories       |
7075 West Gowan Road      |
Suite 2148                |
Las Vegas, NV 89129       | Internet: schear@lvdi.net
---------------------------------------------------------------------