Very far-field communication

A system, comprising:

• a very-far field communication (VFC) tag including:
• a receiver to listen for a tag query provided via a wireless access network, and
• a transmitter to provide a local signal, in response to the tag query, over a local wireless network that is different than the wireless access network;
• a mobile device configured to:
• receive the local signal from the VFC tag, and
• send a tag response, based on the local signal, to a network device;
• and
• the network device configured to:
• select from a group of available base stations, a particular base station of the wireless access network from which to broadcast a tag query for the VFC tag,
• cause insertion of the tag query into a broadcast signal associated with the particular base station,
• receive the tag response from the mobile device, and
• send, to a user device, an indication of the tag response.

A method, comprising:

• receiving, by a mobile device and via a local wireless signal, a response message from a very-far field communication (VFC) tag, wherein the response message includes a unique identifier for the VFC tag;
• adding, by the mobile device and to the response message, location information associated with the mobile device to create a tag response;
• and
• sending, by the mobile device and to a network device beyond the range of the local wireless signal, the tag response.

An electronic tag device, comprising:

• a receiver to listen for a tag query provided via a wireless access network;
• a transmitter to provide a local signal over a local wireless network that is different than the wireless access network;
• a power source for the receiver and the transmitter;
• and
• a controller to:
• manage time intervals for listening by the receiver,
• detect the tag query, and
• cause the transmitter to provide the local signal when the tag query is detected.