Originally Posted by
Loren Pechtel
I think I just realized what's up with the inaccurate reporting:
From the start I had serious doubts about GPS operation in the airport--it would pretty much always have to be falling back to WiFi. WiFi doesn't provide actual location data, that's handled by a database of what routers were observed at what locations. Such databases have problems with WiFi sources that move around--a common example being cruise ships.
However, there's the issue of ad-hoc networking by Windows. How many "WiFi networks" are really just traveler's laptops--laptops that might very well be in another city tomorrow?
It doesn't have Wi-Fi. It uses a databases of cellular tower locations at their servers, so when it lands, it sends its location (over SMS) to them, and they ping you. These databases are very unreliable, and in many cases are croudsourced.