Method of locating a cellular terminal

A method of locating a cellular terminal comprising the steps of:

• detecting a handover event of the cellular terminal from a first network signal transmission region to a second network signal transmission region;
• extracting from a database a location of the handover event, wherein the cellular terminal periodically transmits network signal transmission region identifier information to the database so as to identify the first and second network signal transmission regions so allowing the database to determine when the handover event occurs;
• and
• translating a handover region associated with the first and second network signal transmission regions relative to at least one of an area of overlap and a distance between the first and second identified regions by an amount dependent on at least one of a time of flight of the transmitted signals within the first and second identified regions and timing synchronisation of the transmitted signals within the first and second identified regions;
• expanding an area of the handover region so as to compensate for effects of shadowing within at least one of the first and second network signal transmission regions;
• and calculating the area that the handover region has expanded by comparing a signal power before and after the handover event with those obtained in connection with earlier handover events recorded on the database between the identified network signal transmission region and the second network signal transmission region.

A method of collating data of network signal transmission regions of at least one cellular communications network, the method comprising:

• providing a cellular terminal;
• requesting from a location service provider, cellular terminal location information corresponding to the terminal;
• having the cellular terminal location information sent to a server;
• sending to a server the network signal transmission region identifier for the region within which the cellular terminal is located;
• computing a location of the identified network signal transmission region from the cellular terminal location information;
• storing, in a database maintained by said server, the computed location of the identified network signal transmission region;
• expanding an area of a handover region between the identified network signal transmission region and a second network signal transmission region so as to compensate for effects of shadowing within at least one of the identified network signal transmission region and the second network signal transmission region;
• and
• calculating the area of the handover region that has expanded by comparing a signal power before and after a handover event with those obtained in connection with earlier handover events recorded on the database between the identified network signal transmission region and the second network signal transmission region.