NOTE: This page no longer works - we have used up our free lookups and they are asking for a commercial licence.

Finding the location of a cell tower

8th August 2012

An organisation named www.location-api.com provides a method for looking up telephone tower locations using cell IDs.
If your phone or modem provides you with the cell ID and Location Area Code then you can use the first form on this page to submit that information to their database and retrieve the map coordinates for the tower it's connected to.

After you have retrieved the map coordinates you can submit them, using the second form on this page, for a Google Map lookup.

PS. If you are using an iPhone, you can find the LAC and CID by dialing *3001#12345#* to access the Field Test app.
Eg. If you are connected to a UMTS cell when the Field Test page opens, look in UMTS Cell Environment -> UMTS RR Info.
You'll have to Google to find the field test mode for other phone/modem brands and models.

1. Register with www.location-api.com and request a key.

2. Use your mobile phone or modem to find the LAC and CID you are connected to.

3. Enter your LAC and CID into the form below. (The MCC and MNC default to Australia and Telstra.)
Some phones give the Cell ID in hex, others in decimal, so make sure you enter your cell id into the appropriate field:

Enter your API key here (Your key will look something like this: qml9okx774b54hgr7r1a)

MCC Mobile Country Code (Australia=505)

MNC Mobile Network Code (Telstra=01, Optus=02, Voda=03)

LAC Location Area Code (from your phone, eg. the closest tower to me is 13392)

CID Cell ID in HEXADECIMAL (from your phone, eg. my current cell id in HEX is 13202A8)

              or

CID Cell ID in DECIMAL (from your phone, eg. 20054696 is the decimal value of the HEX above)


After you submit the above form should you should get a result that looks something like this:

   <rsp stat="ok">
   <cell mcc="505" mnc="1" cellId="20054696" lac="13392" rat="W" lat="-41.16333" lon="147.240685" accuracy="2324"/>
   </rsp>

Now copy and paste your lat (the latitude) and lon (the longitude) complete with any minus sign into the fields below:

lat (with the minus sign if it has one, and without the "")

lon

 

 

Hex <> Decimal converter.
Enter relevant numbers in the appropriate field, the other field will display the converted values:

hex

dec

(PS. If you see NaN it means "Not a Number", you've made a mistake.)

73