Technical Details

The Device Location Retrieval API allows you to retrieve the last known location of a SIM enabled device. The API uses cellular network positioning to locate the device associated with a given phone number, providing several benefits over GPS positioning including:

• Improved battery life: Location is obtained via cellular network connection, unlike GPS which has significant battery consumption, increasing the battery capacity required for continuous IoT device tracking. This adds to the lifespan of non rechargeable IoT devices.
• Reduced Bill of Materials (BOM): Existing IoT devices require a GPS module and antenna adding to the unit cost of the device. Network API enabled IoT devices only require a cellular connection.

Use Cases

Some use cases where the Device Location Retrieval API is useful:

• Drone Monitoring and Navigation: By integrating the Device Location Retrieval API, advanced network capabilities can be incorporated to quickly and easily retrieve a drone's position. This makes it possible to develop new applications that provide maximum security in controlling drone fleets.
• Asset Tracking: Companies often need to track and monitor their assets in real time. Whether it’s delivery trucks, connected vehicles, or other machinery, having reliable location data is crucial.​ IoT asset tracking platforms can periodically call the Device Location Retrieval API to obtain the location for each asset.
• Personalized Advertising: By accessing the user's Device Location, with their consent, advertisers have another ingredient to personalize the ads that are displayed to the user.​ With this location data, ads become more relevant, featuring local retail stores, services and other relevant local content.

API Reference

The OpenAPI specification for the Device Location Retrieval API is available here.

Registration

A prerequisite to using Device Location Retrieval is the registration of your application with Vonage and the mobile operators. Vonage’s Network API Registration service automates the registration process through a common dashboard interface and sends the information to the operators for approval. Vonage’s Customer Dashboard portal is the single source for registration across all participating operators.

More detailed information on how the Registration product works can be found here.

Playground

Currently, the Device Location Retrieval API can only be used in the Network APIs with a Virtual Operator, which provides predefined and deterministic API responses based on the parameters of the API request. This allows for the discovery, development and testing of Network APIs in scenarios where access to a live operator is unavailable.

See the Playground guide for more information on how to set up your account, and the Virtual Operator guide for more information on the preconfigured requests and responses.

Authentication

Authentication in Verify is done through JWTs. These can be generated via through the online tool; for more information on authentication using JWTs, see the Authentication guide.