The development of communications technology has been progressing at an astounding rate. Today, mobile communication devices are becoming much more technologically advanced and offer more than the ability to just carry on a conversation. Cell phone GPS tracking is one of those advances. GPS or Global Positioning System tracks your location by interpreting the data received from 3 or more satellites. This has made GPS a popular feature in cars as a navigational aid.

All cell phones constantly broadcast a radio signal, even when not on a call. The cell phone companies have been able to estimate the location of a cell phone for many years now, using triangulation information from the towers receiving the signal. However, the introduction of GPS technology into cell phones has meant that cell phone GPS tracking now makes this information a lot more accurate.

With GPS technology now more commonplace in many new cell phones, this means that the location of anyone carrying a compatible cell phone can be accurately tracked at any time. Cell phone GPS tracking can therefore be a useful feature for business owners and fleet managers who need to be able to keep track of their vehicle movements.

Cell phone GPS tracking can also be a useful feature to the emergency services or police when responding to a 911 call from a GPS cell phone. For this reason, the FCC has legislated that wireless networks provide location information for 911 calls made from cell phones. These are known as E911 calls.

As technology advances even further, future features may be even more powerful. Imagine GPS cell phones used as a navigational device. Based on the cell phone GPS tracking signal, they can be used to find your way to a location, calculate your speed based on your location change over time. From this you can calculate your estimated arrival time, suggest an alternative route and even phone the person you are calling to see with your estimated time of arrival. Of course in cars, GPS navigation systems can already perform many of these tasks. However, it is the portability of cell phones that makes them so useful for this technology.

Cell phone GPS tracking could also be used to locate the whereabouts of your children and offer protection to elderly relatives should something happen and they need urgent assistance. Such features are extremely useful and may add to the widespread nature of GPS-enabled phones in the future.