Sub-sector timing advance positions determinations

A method and apparatus are provided for reporting the latitude and longitude of a mobile station through the use of a network-only solution. The mobile station's range from a controlling base transceiver station is calculated from sub-sector timing advance signal data. The mobile station is assigned an initial mobile station bearing equal to a radial center of the serving sector azimuth bearing of a tri-sectored cell site. The mobile station reports forward link pilot signal power measurements for the two sectors adjacent to the serving sector of the controlling base transceiver station. The base station determines if a difference of the reported power measurements exceeds a specified threshold and mathematically adjusts the initial mobile station bearing by a bearing step size. In one embodiment, the bearing is changed from the center to 30° from the center if the reported power difference exceeds 15 dB.