Is it possible for a 'standard' GPS enabled phone to be tracked without an expensive subscription service?

I was going to stash an old PAYG mobile phone into a horsebox we have, hardwiring it to a 12v power supply so it was always on. If the trailer was stolen, I could pay a few quid and track it via the mobile phone transmitters/triangulation, accuracy can be as low as 200-300 metres but it gives you an idea of where to look.

I've been looking at GPS trackers (which are £££) and was wondering if a GPS enabled phone would do the same job but cheaper. The trailer is stored in a barn on a farm and it could be a couple of weeks before anyone notices its been stolen.

Any ideas?

I've a Nokia E71, and its pretty accurate (10m ish) and it can send by email/text a map of where it is but unsure how you could access the phone remotely for it to tell you where it was or get it to periodically send the message?

Yeh thats the key BR, I'd need to be able to either send it a text and it reply with its location, or access it via a website, which presumably would be more expensive as it would need a data connection.

try these two…

http://phonelocator.mobi/

http://www.trackr.eu/

The first one seems a little better but both free.

there is a service that does this, cant rememberwhat it is, but look on ebay, a chap on there is selling modified old mobiles to be able to track cars etc, he gives the details of the service provider, it was really cheap to subscribe, a few pounds i think

id give you the gps tracker out my van – if i could figure out how it works – but if i figured it out id use it my self and save insurance 🙁

what about this

http://www.kaspersky.co.uk/kaspersky_mobile_security

You can send an sms to the phone and receive the location.

Thanks, will look into the suggestions

http://www.childlocate.co.uk/faq.html

Does it without you needing any clever software on the phone or an expensive gps enabled phone. Obviously only to cell triangulation level, but like you say, might well be enough. All the completely free solutions people posted above require a symbian smartphone with built in gps, which is going to cost you £100 or more to start with, whereas this should work with a £5 nokia.

Only catch with the whole plan is that you need to find a pay as you go sim that won't expire if it isn't topped up. Not sure which networks do these nowadays, I think most will expire if you don't top them up for 3 months or a year.

Joe