origin of calls placed

[jaywright88]

does my phone at like a gps? when looking at my bill, i have the option of clicking on view all voice details. one of the columns reads origin. does origin mean where i ACTUALLY placed the call.? in other words, if i move from one city to the next to place a different call, does it record that?

[iPhonelove]

No it doesn't. It will tell you that your call always originated from where you live. 

[jaywright88]

i would like to thank you for your reply, but i beg to differ. the reason that i ask is that there are 6 different cities listed under ORIGIN which makes me believe that the phone acts like a gps (almost) in that manner. i would like someone to confirm my suspicions or deny with a good explanation as to why i have 6 cities under origin.

thanks

[iPhonelove]

Does it really? Hm. I will check My Verizon. When i last looked at it, it always said calls originated from where i lived, even if i was somewhere else, like on vacation. 

Ok, so what i found was that when you dial someone's number it shows where they are located. So lets say you call the number 352-000-0000. This would show up as the number dialed, and then under Desc it would say the location of where they live. And if someone calls you, if comes up as incoming.

Sorry for the previous confusion, and i hoped this helped. 

[kevinski]

Your phone has GPS functionality, but that isn't what determines the origin. The origin is only a generalized area. It usually represents not a single tower, but a large number of towers that cover a wide area. As such, you could be in one state, but your origin could display a completely separate state as long as you're close enough to the border of said state that you're considered to be in that particular "group" of towers. Also, do bear in mind that the range of any given tower can be stretched as far as seven miles, if I'm not mistaken. You aren't always necessarily picking up the closest tower, either, so there are a lot of variables that can affect your origin. Basically, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the origin.

[angie1234]

No, I disagree with that statement.  When you download the monthly mybill details information to a spreadsheet it does show  the origin and destination.  the other person that shares my plan is a truck driver and I can see his route daily. However, if you view the current usage then yes it will only display the "home" location.

[nmchileman]

There's a lot of interesting answers and theories here.

The origination of the call can indeed vary on your bill. Your origination location is not based off of GPS, instead it's based off the individual cell tower you happen to be using at the time. Not a group of towers, or many towers, just the single individual tower you're using to place that call. Whatever county that cell tower happens to physically be located in determines your origination location.

The destination of the call is also determined in this fashion.

[SuzyQ]

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nmchileman wrote:

There's a lot of interesting answers and theories here.

The origination of the call can indeed vary on your bill. Your origination location is not based off of GPS, instead it's based off the individual cell tower you happen to be using at the time. Not a group of towers, or many towers, just the single individual tower you're using to place that call. Whatever county that cell tower happens to physically be located in determines your origination location.

The destination of the call is also determined in this fashion.

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That was my understanding as well, based on information gleaned from my call logs.  It wasn't always exact, but seemed to be approximately the location the phone was physically at when the calls were placed/received.  The same for the "destination" phone.

Thanks for clearing that up, nmchileman!

[Trouble211]

So may i clarify, the number calling hits the towers in close proximity, therefore origination.. destination would be the receivers location? 

[KH-OrnEsh]

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