android - Retrieve cell towers information

Question

Does anybody know how to retrieve cell tower list on GSM and CDMA on Android.

I have been trying to use Google Maps Locations API: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/business/geolocation/

And I want to get cell towers information with these fields:

• cellId: Unique identifier of the cell. On GSM, this is the Cell ID (CID); CDMA networks use the Base Station ID (BID).
• locationAreaCode: The Location Area Code (LAC) for GSM networks; CDMA networks use Network ID (NID).
• mobileCountryCode: The cell tower's Mobile Country Code (MCC).
• mobileNetworkCode: The cell tower's Mobile Network Code. This is the MNC for GSM, or the System ID (SID) for CDMA.
• age: The number of milliseconds since this cell was primary. If age is 0, the cellId represents a current measurement.
• signalStrength: Radio signal strength measured in dBm.
• timingAdvance: The timing advance value.

---

This code doesn't especially getting cell towers information.

TelephonyManager tel = (TelephonyManager) getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

// Type of the network
int phoneTypeInt = tel.getPhoneType();
String phoneType = null;
phoneType = phoneTypeInt == TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_GSM ? "gsm" : phoneType;
phoneType = phoneTypeInt == TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_CDMA ? "cdma" : phoneType;
try {
  if (phoneType != null) {
    params.put("radioType", phoneType);
  }
} catch (Exception e) {}

/*
 * The below code doesn't work I think.
 */
JSONArray cellList = new JSONArray();
List<NeighboringCellInfo> neighCells = tel.getNeighboringCellInfo();
for (int i = 0; i < neighCells.size(); i++) {
  try {
    JSONObject cellObj = new JSONObject();
    NeighboringCellInfo thisCell = neighCells.get(i);
    cellObj.put("cellId", thisCell.getCid());
    cellList.put(cellObj);
  } catch (Exception e) {}
}
if (cellList.length() > 0) {
  try {
    params.put("cellTowers", cellList);
  } catch (JSONException e) {}
}

And I set permissions like this:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_COARSE_UPDATES"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_WIFI_STATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CHANGE_WIFI_STATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"/>

Please help me, thank you.

Answer 1

I had this problem much more recently and it ended up being the fact that

getNeighboringCellInfo

is deprecated from API 23 up. To get around this use something like the following (it's quite annoying, really):

public static JSONArray getCellInfo(Context ctx){
        TelephonyManager tel = (TelephonyManager) ctx.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

        JSONArray cellList = new JSONArray();

// Type of the network
        int phoneTypeInt = tel.getPhoneType();
        String phoneType = null;
        phoneType = phoneTypeInt == TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_GSM ? "gsm" : phoneType;
        phoneType = phoneTypeInt == TelephonyManager.PHONE_TYPE_CDMA ? "cdma" : phoneType;

        //from Android M up must use getAllCellInfo
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {



            List<NeighboringCellInfo> neighCells = tel.getNeighboringCellInfo();
            for (int i = 0; i < neighCells.size(); i++) {
                try {
                    JSONObject cellObj = new JSONObject();
                    NeighboringCellInfo thisCell = neighCells.get(i);
                    cellObj.put("cellId", thisCell.getCid());
                    cellObj.put("lac", thisCell.getLac());
                    cellObj.put("rssi", thisCell.getRssi());
                    cellList.put(cellObj);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                }
            }

        } else {
            List<CellInfo> infos = tel.getAllCellInfo();
            for (int i = 0; i<infos.size(); ++i) {
                try {
                    JSONObject cellObj = new JSONObject();
                    CellInfo info = infos.get(i);
                    if (info instanceof CellInfoGsm){
                        CellSignalStrengthGsm gsm = ((CellInfoGsm) info).getCellSignalStrength();
                        CellIdentityGsm identityGsm = ((CellInfoGsm) info).getCellIdentity();
                        cellObj.put("cellId", identityGsm.getCid());
                        cellObj.put("lac", identityGsm.getLac());
                        cellObj.put("dbm", gsm.getDbm());
                        cellList.put(cellObj);
                    } else if (info instanceof CellInfoLte) {
                        CellSignalStrengthLte lte = ((CellInfoLte) info).getCellSignalStrength();
                        CellIdentityLte identityLte = ((CellInfoLte) info).getCellIdentity();
                        cellObj.put("cellId", identityLte.getCi());
                        cellObj.put("tac", identityLte.getTac());
                        cellObj.put("dbm", lte.getDbm());
                        cellList.put(cellObj);
                    }

                } catch (Exception ex) {

                }
            }
        }

        return cellList;
    }