New advances in technology have made it possible for anybody to trace a cell phone location.

These advances in technology designed to trace a cell phone location came about as a result of a number of recent events, including the events of September 11, 2001. Technological breakthroughs which have occurred since then include the inclusion of GPS technology in most mobile phones, and an improved ability to detect a phone's location based on signals from local transmission towers.

There are number services on the Internet which allow you to trace the location of a cell phone. They may differ in therms of interface and appearance, butthey are using the same data from the telecom companies.

In the past the only way to gain access to the technology to trace a cell phone location was to buy equipment, and the use of this equipment was largely regulated to official organisations such as the police.

The way these services work is by gathering information from the telecom company that provides the cell phone service. this information includes the location of the cell phone as calculated by a combination of factors including the GPS as previously mentioned, and the distance to each of the nearest cellphone transmission masts. This is the same information which the police get.

There are wide range of reasons why you might want to trace a cell phone location, such as trying to find out where a friend or relative rates while you're out and about, keeping track of the location of a child, meeting up with friends, and trying to find shops and restaurants near you. Companies make use of these services in order to track their employees location, and also to provide security for employees when they are working in a remote location on their own. In the end, there are probably as many reasons as there are users.

The way GPS technology works in modern cell phones varies between the different cellphone networks, and with some operators it does not continuously transmit location. This means that when you want to trace a cell phone location, the information that you will be gathering is most likely collected from transmission tower locations. However, when the person who has the phone has made an emergency call, this GPS transmission will always be sent. This is designed to ensure that the police can always track a cell phone location, in order to get help to people who need it.

The result of this design that the accuracy of the location which is provided by the service will be greater in areas which are more populated, and have more radio transmission masts, and will be lower in areas where there are very few radio masts, such is the wastelands, deserts, or un-populated areas of countryside. So, it is easier to track a cell phone location with a high level of accuracy in built up areas.

Nonetheless, most times you trace a cell phone location the information from the cell phone masts should be fine. After all, you do not need to know the person's location with a very great deal of accuracy for most purposes.

In 2006, 300 Billion text messages were sent in China, 140 Billion were sent in the Philippines, and 40 Billion were sent in the UK. How does Canada match up? The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has reported that just over 4.3 Billion text messages were sent by Canadians last year.

So, why have Canadians been slow to adopt this technology? Text messaging is far more popular in Europe and Asia primarily due to the high costs of voice communication; hence there is a monetary incentive to use text messaging. In the UK, customers who are with the mobile operator ‘Orange’, pay 75 cents per minute to call customers on a different network but only 25 cents to send a text message. Even without the monetary incentive that customers in Europe and Asia have, Canadians are still adopting text messaging at an alarming rate with unbelievable growth in year over year (.75B in 2004, 1.5B in 2005 and 4.3B in 2006).

Text messaging has become a worldwide phenomenon and is being used in unique ways around the globe beyond just person-to-person messaging. In Australia, the Bible Society translated all 31,173 verses of the Bible into ‘SMS language’ in the hope of spreading the holy word to a younger audience. In Indonesia, officials are working on a text messaging system to warn its residents of an incoming Tsunami. In the Philippines, text messaging played a significant role in the 2001 coup against former President Joseph Estrada. In India, text messaging is used for everything from cricket score updates to airline bookings and banking services.

Text messaging use in Canada is on the upswing. In 2004, ‘Canadian Idol’ began to allow voting via text messaging and has been extremely successful. Numerous services that push sports scores and stock quotes to mobile phones via SMS have been popping up. Recently, a small Canadian firm, txtreviews, launched a free service that allows users to get movie and book reviews on demand via text messaging. Amazon.ca book pricing information is also provided along with the review helping Canadians in brick-and-mortar stores make the right purchasing decision.

Although Canada still lags behind, text message growth has surpassed the expectations of everyone in the industry and text messaging services are increasing in popularity. Mobile operators now offer unlimited text messaging plans for a low monthly fee and it is predicted that Canadians will send out over 10 Billion text messages this year. All signs point to the fact that Canadians are joining the ‘texting’ revolution.