Get current location name of user without using gps or internet but by using Network_Provider in android

Question

This question is directly related to the same prevailing stackoverflow question at "Android: get current location of user without using gps or internet" where the accepted answer is actually not answering the question.

I should be able to get the current location name (eg:city name, village name) of the device via network provider not with GPS or internet. Following is the accepted answer in that question. (The following code parts should be included in the onCreate() method)

// Acquire a reference to the system Location Manager
LocationManager locationManager = (LocationManager) this.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);

// Define a listener that responds to location updates
LocationListener locationListener = new LocationListener() {
    public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
      // Called when a new location is found by the network location provider.
      makeUseOfNewLocation(location);
    }

    public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {}

    public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {}

    public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {}
  };

// Register the listener with the Location Manager to receive location updates
locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER, 0, 0, locationListener);

---

I changed the above code given in the linked answer as following but no success.

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
    final TextView txtView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.tv1);
    txtView.setText("ayyo samitha");
    ////

    // Acquire a reference to the system Location Manager
    LocationManager locationManager;
   locationManager= (LocationManager) this.getSystemService(Context.LOCATION_SERVICE);

    // Define a listener that responds to location updates
    LocationListener locationListener = new LocationListener() {
        public void onLocationChanged(Location location) {
            // Called when a new location is found by the network location provider.
            makeUseOfNewLocation(location);

        }

        private void makeUseOfNewLocation(Location location) {
            txtView.setText("sam came in");
            txtView.append(location.toString());
        }

        public void onStatusChanged(String provider, int status, Bundle extras) {}

        public void onProviderEnabled(String provider) {
           // makeUseOfNewLocation(location);
        }

        public void onProviderDisabled(String provider) {}
    };

    // Register the listener with the Location Manager to receive location updates
    if (locationManager.isProviderEnabled(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER)) {
        locationManager.requestLocationUpdates(LocationManager.NETWORK_PROVIDER, 0, 0, locationListener);
    }

}

How to accomplish what I want by correcting above code or any other method? Note that I want to get the location name, but not the longitudes and latitudes. Can somebody please help me.

Answer 1

What you are referring to here (showing location name on older phones) is done using "Cell Broadcast" (or "CB"). This has absolutely nothing to do with the Location API or any variations on that.

Cell towers can send out broadcast information that can be received by devices (something like "one to many SMS"). Some operators have used Cell Broadcast to broadcast the name of the location where the cell tower is. Some operators have used Cell Broadcast to broadcast the location (lat/long) of the cell tower. Some operators have used Cell Broadcast to send advertising tickers. There are no standards for the information contained in a CB broadcast message and each mobile operator can choose to use this or not.

Since most operators do not send these messages, it probably doesn't make sense to invest any time in trying to receive and decode them. But if you want to try, you can register a BroadcastReceiver listening for this Intent action: android.provider.Telephony.SMS_CB_RECEIVED. See the documentation for more details about what data is contained in the Intent.