LTE and OpenCelliD for geolocation?
Background
This is a report on an idea that we had and the feasibility of it, hence the question mark in the title.
The idea was to take the information returned by an LTE Modem and map it to the geolocation of the mobile tower where it is connected to in that point in time.
The mapping would be done using the information from the available OpenCelliD databases which can be downloaded.
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First Test - South Africa
Item | Value |
mcc | 655 |
mnc | 07 |
tracking_area_code | 18 |
cell_id | 80 |
Doing a search through the CSV file for that combination unfortunately resulted in none found

.
This test was using a Cell C sim card. We also tried a Vodacom sim card that also returned no results.
The next test we did was in Greece with the hope that the OpenCelliD database for Greece will have more up to date and complete information.
Second Test - Greece
Item | Value |
mcc | 202 |
mnc | 05 |
tracking_area_code | 4024 |
cell_id | 808449 |
Third test - API
{
"status": "ok",
"balance": 4998,
"lat": -26.535781,
"lon": 27.907425,
"accuracy": 35377,
"message": "This cell tower was not found in OpenCelliD. However, we served a location from the Unwired Labs LocationAPI (unwiredlabs.com), an Enterprise Geolocation service with over 100 million cell towers.",
"aged": "1",
"address": "Ilona Road, Debonair Park, Emfuleni Ward 21, Emfuleni Local Municipality, Sedibeng District Municipality, Gauteng, 1884, South Africa"
}
Conclusion