System and Method For Improving Location Estimates Of Co-Located Sectored Cell Sites For Location Services

1. A method of improving a location estimate of transceivers, the method comprising: identifying a plurality of transceivers co-located at a sectored cell site each having respective location estimates as a co-located group; determining a location of a virtual transceiver for the co-located group by using an average of the respective location estimates of each of the plurality of identified transceivers; assigning the determined location of the virtual transceiver to each of the transceivers of the co-located group at the sectored cell site; and grouping the plurality of transceivers into possible co-located groups based on a carrier identifier associated with the transceivers wherein the co-located groups are identified by a co-location labelling format that identifies one or more labelling formats used when assigning the unique identifier to the respective transceiver associated with the carrier identifier.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising accessing the respective location estimates of each of the transceivers by respective unique identifier determined to be co-located from a data store.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers is determined from location information provided from a plurality of mobile devices in communication with the respective transceiver.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers comprises a respective error resulting from determining the location as a centroid of a plurality of mobile device locations unevenly distributed about the respective transceiver.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising identifying each of a plurality of transceiverIDs as co-located transceivers by assigning a unique virtual transceiverID to the co-located transceivers.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising, for each co-located group for a carrier identifier: determining a number of the plurality of transceivers with consistent transceiver IDs; and identifying the plurality of transceivers with consistent transceiver IDs as co-located transceivers based upon the labelling format.

7. An apparatus for estimating a transceiver's location comprising: at least one processing unit for executing instructions; and at least one memory unit for storing instructions, the instructions when executed by the at least one processing unit configuring the apparatus to: identify a plurality of transceivers co-located at a sectored cell site each having respective location estimates as a co-located group; determine a location of a virtual transceiver for the co-located group by using an average of the respective location estimates of each of the plurality of identified transceivers; assign the determined location of the virtual transceiver to each of the transceivers of the co-located group at the sectored cell site; and group the plurality of transceivers into possible co-located groups based on a carrier identifier associated with the transceivers wherein the co-located groups are identified by a co-location labelling format that identifies one or more labelling formats used when assigning the unique identifier to the respective transceiver associated with the carrier identifier.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the executed instructions further configure the apparatus to access the respective location estimates of each of the transceivers by respective unique identifier determined to be co-located from a data store.

9. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers is determined from location information provided from a plurality of mobile devices in communication with the respective transceiver.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers comprises a respective error resulting from determining the location as a centroid of a plurality of mobile device locations unevenly distributed about the respective transceiver.

11. The apparatus of claim 7 , further comprising identifying each of the plurality of transceiver IDs as co-located transceivers by assigning a unique virtual transceiver ID to the co-located transceivers.

12. A non-transitory computer readable memory storing computer executable instructions thereon that when executed by a processor perform: identifying a plurality of transceivers co-located at a sectored cell site each having respective location estimates as a co-located group; determining a location of a virtual transceiver for the co-located group by using an average of the respective location estimates of each of the plurality of identified transceivers; and assigning the determined location of the virtual transceiver to each of the transceivers of the co-located group at the sectored cell site; and grouping the plurality of transceivers into possible co-located groups based on a carrier identifier associated with the transceivers wherein the co-located groups are identified by co-location labelling format that identifies one or more labelling formats used when assigning the unique identifier to the respective transceiver associated with the carrier identifier.

13. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 12 , further comprising instructions for accessing the respective location estimates of each of the transceivers by respective unique identifier determined to be co-located from a data store.

14. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 13 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers is determined from location information provided from a plurality of mobile devices in communication with the respective transceiver.

15. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 14 , wherein the location estimate of each of the transceivers comprises a respective error resulting from determining the location as a centroid of a plurality of mobile device locations unevenly distributed about the respective transceiver.

16. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 12 , further comprising instructions for identifying each of a plurality of transceiverIDs as co-located transceivers by assigning a unique virtual transceiverID to the co-located transceivers.

17. The non-transitory computer readable memory of claim 12 , further comprising instructions for, for each co-located group for a carrier identifier: determining a number of the plurality of transceivers with consistent transceiver IDs; and identifying the plurality of transceivers with consistent transceiver IDs as co-located transceivers based upon the labelling format.