System and method for providing historical data for location services

摘要

A telecommunications system and method is disclosed for providing location information, which can consist of either real-time data or historical data when the subscriber requested to be positioned is either absent or not reachable, to a requesting location application (LA). The historical data is preferably stored per subscriber in a database within a serving Mobile Switching Center/Visitor Location Register (MSC/VLR) following a successful positioning of that subscriber. This historical data can consist of the location information along with a time stamp indicating the time that the location information was obtained and stored in the MSC/VLR. The age of the location information can then be calculated by determining the difference between the current read value of the system clock and the value of the time stamp information stored in the MSC/VLR for that particular location information.