Patent ID: 8265611

Claim:
A method of providing location-based services, the method comprising the steps of: identifying a plurality of mobile user devices associated with a wireless network that are candidates for a location-based service; monitoring the identified mobile user devices to determine when one or more of said mobile user devices becomes currently active on a traffic channel of the wireless network; automatically obtaining location information for said one or more mobile user devices, and detecting a change in the location of a given one of the mobile user devices, responsive to said one or more mobile user devices being currently active on the traffic channel; responsive to the detection of the change in the location of the given mobile user device, sending a location query to the given mobile user device over the traffic channel as previously established with the given mobile user device; receiving from the given mobile user device a corresponding portion of the location information over the traffic channel responsive to the sent location query; and controlling delivery of at least one message to the given one of said mobile user devices based on the location information; wherein generation of location queries involving respective ones of the mobile user devices is synchronized with traffic channel activity of those mobile user devices.