How does location work?

[Lieve Peten]

I have a Samsung S3 mini.
I have wifi switched off when not using it, ditto for mobile data and GPS service.
Yet the thing still seems to know where I am. So switching off the GPS doesn't really switch this feature off?
When at home, on wifi, our (3) laptops appear to be located near Brussels (which is where my provider is located and their servers) BUT when I switch the wifi of my phone on, my phone knows exactly where I am. So it's the phone, not the wifi that 'knows'. And before you ask, the GPS and mobile data are on OFF when I'm on wifi...

 

[davidblake]

I have a Samsung S3 mini.
I have wifi switched off when not using it, ditto for mobile data and GPS service.
Yet the thing still seems to know where I am. So switching off the GPS doesn't really switch this feature off?
When at home, on wifi, our (3) laptops appear to be located near Brussels (which is where my provider is located and their servers) BUT when I switch the wifi of my phone on, my phone knows exactly where I am. So it's the phone, not the wifi that 'knows'. And before you ask, the GPS and mobile data are on OFF when I'm on wifi...

Well, that may be happening because you location is also determined with the help of mobile network and here when you turn your device GPS off means now your device tried to find you with the help of nearest mobile tower and it gets Brussels and shows your location to be Brussels but when you switch yourGPS on means now your device is able to pin point your exact location over the map. I guess now you may get a rough idea why you get wrong location while you keep the GPS off but after switching the GPS connection on you start getting your correct location over the map. Let me know if you still come across questions.

 

[Lieve Peten]

The phone always knows its location, it's the laptops that think they (and I) are in Brussels.
If its position is determined by the the nearest telephone towers, it must be quite a good way to pinpoint a phone since usually it's less than 100 metres off... right now, the dot (in Google Maps) that's supposed to be me is hovering above a point some 70 metres north-east from where I am. Thats with wifi on, mobile data and GPS off.
With wifi switched off and mobile data + GPS switched on, the (Google Maps) blue dot hovers above my chimney quite often, then it jumps to 50 or so metres further down, then switches back here within metres of my house or above it. It's not too stable since we're on the edge of 3G-no 3G-no reception at all
Right! Every once in while we have no phone reception at all, which is why it puzzles me that the phone knows roughly where I am.... if even one tower is a problem, triangulation is imposible....
So i think the GPS is on all the time really.... but it doesn't want me to know this - I'm probably wrong, which is why I asked the question here....