A system and method supports multiple wireless carrier mobile station
location requirements with a common network overlay location system. The
common network overlay location system shares geolocation assets such as
location measurement units (LMU), geo-location control system (GCS), and,
optionally, mobile positioning centers (MPC). The shared location assets
are configured to operate with each of the sharing carrier systems. The
number of sharing carriers in the same market is not limited. LMUs are
configurable and switchable to measure attributes of the transmitted
signal from mobile stations belonging to any of the wireless carriers
which are used by the common location system to estimate the location of
the mobile station using time of arrival, time difference of arrival,
angle of arrival, signal power, and combinations of the same. The
location of the LMUs are configured to provide an acceptable level of
accuracy while minimizing a function such as the need for additional LMUs
and cost.