Your database has got corrupted

[roxburd]

When I first set up and registered my SureSignal a few months ago the network reported its location as Primrose Hill, London. For example, when I was connected to my SureSignal, my BBC Weather app thought I was in Primrose Hill - about 100 miles away from my real location. Fair enough as I expected it to take a few days for the registration data to percolate through your systems. A few days later the network started to resolve the location of the SureSignal correctly and so my apps picked up the right location.  The network reported the right location for several months.

This morning I noticed that the network has reverted to reporting my SureSignal as being in Primrose Hill again. I have not deregistered the SureSignal or made any other changes. Can you fix, please?

Thanks

[drey_p]

Hi there

The issue may not lie with Vodafone themselves.  Typically odd locations are caused by a new IP address being assigned to you by your Internet Provider. Usually, once you get a new IP address, the actual location settles down after about a week to 10 days. 

[roxburd]

Really? But the location is resolved off the cell ID, not the IP address...

Do you mean the IP address my ISP assigns my broadband connection? I really don't see how that could be relevant. Or do you mean some other mobile-network-scope IP address that Voda reserves for devices using my SureSignal when it connects in?

Thanks

[drey_p]

But remember, that when you connect to you SureSignal, you are connecting to a device that is running off your broadband and not the nearest cell tower. The SureSignal uses the location information that comes from the IP address assigned to your broadband connection by your ISP.  So if your IP address shows that you are in outer Mongolia, your SureSignal will think you are there and when your phone connects to the SureSignal, it will also show that you are in outer Mongolia. 

[roxburd]

Hmmm, don't think so - when you register your SureSignal you tell Voda its location (postcode). When an app on my mobile wants to resolve its location the OS (Android in this case) serves it a location based on any/all of (resolved) Cell ID, (resolved) WiFi SSIDs and GPS. I am an Android developer and I'm pretty sure it never resolves location off IP address since geolocation of IP addresses is notoriously inaccurate. I'm pretty sure the SureSignal box wouldn't do it for the same reason and anyway I don't think the mobile network standards support a cell telling a device its location directly (the request has to go deeper into the network to get resolved). In this case, Android seems to be asking Voda where my picocell (SureSignal) is located and Voda is returning the wrong location - Primrose Hill - even though last week it got it right. Fortunately, the fault is now fixed but I've heard nothing from Voda... about right.

[Anonymous]

roxburd

is absolutely right on IP geolocation as for example I'm in Bucks but my ISP's edge router is in Manchester which is where is where most geolocation services think I am and a couple think it's London where the ISP also has a peering presence (The ISP has it's own kit in the exchanges but this isn't visible to the geolocation service)

If I use google maps on my android phone it gets my location spot on although I don't usually have GPS on