Patent ID: 7209758

Claim:
A method for providing location based services to a mobile subscriber terminal that is roaming in a coverage area of a serving network, the method comprising: a location based service provider that is outside of the serving network receiving from the serving network (i) a request for location based services and (ii) an identifier that is indicative of a first location system that is associated with the serving network, wherein the request for location based services may be initiated by the mobile subscriber terminal, and the identifier may be provided by the serving network; responsive to the request for location based services, the location based service provider sending to a second location system (i) a request for mobile positioning information that is associated with the mobile subscriber terminal and (ii) the identifier, wherein the second location system may be associated with a subscriber system to which the mobile subscriber terminal subscribes; the second location system sending the request for mobile positioning information to the first location system, wherein the request for mobile positioning information is directed to the first location system based on the identifier; responsive to the request for mobile-positioning information, the first location system populating a shared database with mobile positioning information for the mobile subscriber terminal; the second location system retrieving the mobile positioning information from the shared database; the second location system sending the mobile positioning information to the location-based-service provider; the location based service provider sending a request for geospatial content associated with the mobile positioning information to a geographical information system associated with the serving network, wherein the geographical information system comprises a database that contains geospatial content that is limited to an area selected from the group consisting of (i) the coverage area of the serving network and (ii) a national boundary; the location based service provider receiving the geospatial content from the geographical information system; and the location based service provider sending to the serving network for transmission to the mobile subscriber terminal a reply to the request for location based services.