It sounds too fast to be true but, it is a published result backed by research by SkyHook Wireless. XPS is a hybrid positioning system which allows a mobile device to glean location data from different sources including Wi-Fi, GPS or cellular radio (SM/CDMA) to determine position to an accuracy of 10 to 20m. XPS uses the unique signature of each Wi-Fi access point as well as the Cell ID of nearby towers.

If you look at the performance table below you can see that equal or better accuracy than GPS or A-GPS alone. Reliability is near perfect and the TTF is as close to instantaneous as you could wish for (full hybrid location in 4s). From SkyHook Wirelesses graph below you can see that the hybrid nature of the XPS positioning system also helps it outperform other positioning system in any type of location from rural to indoors.

As it uses existing infrastructure, XPS is a software only positioning system which can be preloaded or downloaded later. Applications can achieve location awareness by tapping into the underlying XPS system. If you’re looking for location aware applications, a good place to start is Location Revolution.