GSM Cell ID

Identifier of a base station on a cell phone network From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A GSM Cell ID (CID) is a generally unique number used to identify each base transceiver station (BTS) or sector of a BTS within a location area code (LAC) if not within a GSM network.

In some cases the first or last digit of CID represents cells' Sector ID:

  • value 0 is used for omnidirectional antenna,
  • values 1, 2, and 3 are used to identify sectors of bisector or trisector antennas.

In UMTS, there is a distinction between Cell ID (CID) and UTRAN Cell ID (also called LCID). The UTRAN Cell ID (LCID) is a concatenation of the RNC-ID (12 bits, ID of the Radio Network Controller) and Cell ID (16 bits, unique ID of the Cell). CID is just the Cell ID. The concatenation of both will still be unique but can be confusing in some cellid databases as some store the CID and other store LCID. It makes sense to record them separately as the RNC ID is the same for many cells, the unique element is the CID.[citation needed]

A valid CID ranges from 0 to 65535 (216 − 1) on GSM and CDMA networks and from 0 to 268,435,455 (228 − 1) on UMTS and LTE networks.[1]

Cell ID databases and services

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Perspective

A number of commercial and public Cell ID databases and services are available:

More information Name, Unique cells ...
Name Unique cells Countries (MCC) Operators (MNC) Measurements Free database download Active project Data license Comment
Cell Spotting 0.1 million[2] 667 no CC0
Combain Mobile >140 million[3] >240 >1700 >131 billion no yes Supports GSM, CDMA, UMTS, LTE and NR via API.[4]
LocationAPI.org 157.89 million[5] 240 1712 25 billion no yes Supports WiFi, GSM, CDMA, UMTS and LTE technologies via its API.
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Unwired Labs LocationAPI Global Coverage Map
[6]
Mozilla Location Service 28.2 million[7] 240[8] 2.7 billion[7] yes[9] no[10] CC0[9] Based on crowd-sourced data. Also WiFi database. Cooperating with OpenCelliD[9] and Combain.[11]
Mylnikov GEO[12] >34 million 505 3500 yes no[13] Contains data from radiocells.org, OpenCellID and MLS.
Navizon[14] 71 million 239 1712 22 billion no yes Based on crowd-sourced data. Also WiFi database.[15]
NetMeterProject.com 0.2 million 77 174 10 million limited; private use only no [16] Only a small portion of the database can be downloaded and for private use only: the measurements where the crowd users accepted the "Creative Commons Namensnennung-Nicht-kommerziell-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 3.0 Deutschland" license
OpenCellID by Unwired Labs[17] 38.9 million 222 753 2.1 billion yes yes CC-BY-SA 3.0
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OpenCellID database growth monthly
Based on crowd-sourced data; free API key required for database download; Service is now maintained by Unwired Labs.[18]
OpenSignal[19] 0.8 million 825 5.2 billion no yes
radiocells.org[20] 0.7 million 94 243 yes yes CC-BY-SA 3.0 Based on crowd-sourced data.
WiGLE[21] 6.2 million no yes
CellMapper no yes
OpenMobileNetwork
G-NetWold by Gyokov Solutions
Skyhook Wireless
Google Location Services[22]
Apple Location Services[23]
Microsoft Location Services[24]
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See also

References

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