Why is four metre GPS-level accuracy important?

We talk about four metre accuracy, and real-time data, because you need both those things to make an effective tracking system.

If you are to make a good decision about what will work for you, understanding this is crucial.

There are a lot of competing mobile phone location systems on offer. Almost all triangulate the position of the mobile phone using the phone transmitters. That method is very inaccurate.

Additionally, if your target phone is out of signal range, depending on your operator you'll receive a "can't find it" message, or you'll receive a message telling you the location of where the owner last sent a text or made a call. No direction or speed. You'll have no idea where they are now.

Competing mobile phone location systems have a typical accuracy of about 400 metres (equivalent to a line of 100 parked cars) in any direction. It's the size of forty football pitches, or the area of most town centres. It's an awfully long way if you're trying to find someone urgently, and it forms a large area to search. It includes a lot of buildings in a built-up area and a lot of trains in a train station.

If you are using a mobile phone to text to discover someone else's location, you'll have to know your way around. Here's the first output from a system we tried: not worst, just the first (actually our first request resulted in nothing, so second request, first result): "Andrew is within 1607 meters of Riggs Head, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 2TL". This writer has lived in Scarborough for twelve years and has no clue where Riggs Head is. And a 1.6Km search radius?

Mobile phone location systems simply don't work if you need to find someone.

By contrast, our system uses GPS, the same system as satellite navigation, and it's normally accurate to 4 metres.

Using a system based on GPS, you can tell almost exactly where someone is: which room of their house they are in, which shop counter they are at, or exactly where along the country path they are. Our system takes you straight to the person you want to find.

GPS is the only system that provides this level of accuracy and Blue Tree Services was the first company to design, manufacture and supply a GPS location tracking system in the UK. We continue to innovate and to lead the market.

Next, read about why it's crucial to have real time data.