Countries, Providers, LAC's and Cells
Each cell tower has a numeric ID associated with it. The id is made up of four components:- Country code. Each country has its own unique country codef
- Provider code. Each provider within a country has its own code.
- Local Area Code (LAC). A number of cell towers in an area will share the same local area code.
- Cell ID. Within each LAC, each cell has a unique numeric ID.
Assigning names to cell towers
Although some databases of cell tower ids are available, many areas are not covered. Because of this, anorak requires you to enter a description of new cell towers as you encounter them.Although this can be a bit tedious using a cell-phone key pad anorak tries to make things as simple as possible.
To enter descriptions for cells or LACs you need to select the log tab.
When a new LAC or Cell ID is encountered, anorak uses ??? for its name.
To enter a LAC select Edit LAC from the menu. This will show a list of recently encountered LAC's and you simply select the one you want to edit and then enter the name.
To enter a Cell description select Edit Cell from the menu. This will show a list of recently encountered Cells.
Select the one you want to edit. You will then be shown a menu giving all the names for other cells with the same LAC. Select the appropriate name, or Other if you wish to enter a new name.
Next, anorak will prompt you for detail to append to the description. This allows you to select one of Exact, North, South, East, West or Other.
How do you know how to label a cell?
The short answer is you don't! When you encounter a new cell, just enter a brief description of where you currently are. If it later turns out that the cell is visible over a wide area and your description does not really capture this you can always edit the cell description.Sharing cell data
The to-do list includes setting up a website to help people share information on public transport.For example, by uploading which train you are on and where that train is, that information can be made available to others, further up the line, waiting for the train.
The same website could very easily be used as a repository for looking up cell ids.
Backing up a database
Once you have entered a number of cell ids it is probabably a good idea to take a backup.The cell information is stored in two simple csv files, lacs.db and cells.db.
These are stored in the data/anorak sub-folder of the System folder on your phone.