Hi Cameron,

assuming you are not too concerned about the accuracy of the area and  
you don't want to rely on built-in gps receivers in the mobile phones:  
every mobile provider should know which phones are using a specific  
base station. If all the base stations are georeferenced and stored as  
points in a GIS, selecting the appropriate base stations by  
intersecting them with your polygon is an easy task. Then you would  
have to look up every mobile that is registered to one of the base  
stations within your polygon and send out the sms.

The catch is that the accuracy of this method varies depending on the  
cell size of the mobile network. Generally speaking, countryside=big  
cells+low accuracy, city areas=smaller cells+higher accuracy.

Just out of curiosity: for what kind of application do you want to do  
this?

Tobias

Am 23.10.2008 um 21:33 schrieb Cameron Shorter:

> Jeffrey, you have got it.
> The question originates from a telco so privacy is not my problem.
> I probably should rephrase the question as "Are there any systems for
> telcos which allow the telco to select all their mobile phones  
> within a
> polygon area?"
>
> Jeffrey Johnson wrote:
>> If I understand correctly, Cameron is asking how to ask the telco
>> which phones are in a particular polygon at a particular time. Am I
>> right? If this list could be determined by alternate methods
>> (registered zip codes, checkins etc), there are any number of  
>> 'normal'
>> methods to send these phones an sms. The difficult bit is to find out
>> ALL the phones in a particular polygon at a particular time (not just
>> the ones that have registered their location with a particular app),
>> and seems to me you are going to have ask your friendly telco for  
>> that
>> kind of thing, and I seriously doubt they are gnna help.
>>
>> ?
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 23, 2008 at 9:22 AM, Marc Pfister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On the more of the phone side of things, you could do it with the
>>> Asterisk open-source PBX. It does some basic SMS stuff and there are
>>> add-ins that extend the functionality further.
>>>
>>> Marc
>>>
>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:geowanking-
>>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Cameron Shorter
>>>> Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 8:08 PM
>>>> To: [email protected]
>>>> Subject: [Geowanking] SMSing all phones in a polygon area?
>>>>
>>>> Hi,
>>>> Does anyone know of software or systems which can send SMS  
>>>> messages to
>>>> all phones in an operator specified polygon area?
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>> Geospatial Systems Architect
>>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>>
>>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>>>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Systems Architect
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> Geowanking mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.burri.to/mailman/listinfo/geowanking

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