Mozilla Location Service

Mozilla Location Service
Type of site
Collaborative cell spotting
Available inEnglish
OwnerMozilla
URLOfficial website Edit this at Wikidata
CommercialNo
Launched2013; 11 years ago (2013)
Current statusClose
Content license
CC0 1.0 Universal

Mozilla Location Service (MLS) was an open geolocation service that allowed devices to find their position by processing received signals of publicly observable radio transmitters: cellular network antennae (and their Cell IDs), Wi-Fi access points (and their BSSIDs), and Bluetooth beacons.[1][2] The service was provided by Mozilla from 2013 to 2024.[3] The service used Mozilla's open source software project called Ichnaea.[4]

In February 2019, MLS had collected more than 44.43 million unique cell networks and 1450 million unique WiFi networks[5] (April 2018: 37.7 million UCN and 1145 million UWN,[6] November 2016: 28 million UCN and 757 million UWN,[7] November 2015: 17 million UCN and 427 million UWN[8]).

In March 2024, it was announced that MLS would be retired and that functionality will be reduced in stages until the project is archived in July. [9]

  1. ^ "Mozilla's Location Service pilot project provides geolocation lookups based on public cell tower and WiFi data". The Next Web. 2013-10-28. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  2. ^ "MLS - Overview". location.services.mozilla.com. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
  3. ^ "Combain Provides Cell-ID and WiFi Positioning to Mozilla (Podcast)". GPS Business News. 2015-03-10. Retrieved 25 June 2015.
  4. ^ mozilla/ichnaea, Mozilla, 2022-11-13, retrieved 2022-11-13
  5. ^ MLS stats, accessed February 2019
  6. ^ MLS stats, accessed April 2018
  7. ^ MLS stats, accessed November 2016
  8. ^ MLS stats, accessed November 2015
  9. ^ "Retiring the Mozilla Location Service". Mozilla Discourse. 2024-03-13. Retrieved 2024-03-14.