A mobile wireless network and a method of operation provide a hierarchical selection from among various location methods in populating a user location database. A digital signature technique is used to determine a location of a mobile wireless communications device. The location is compared with received signal-strength indication (RSSI) measurements to determine if the location provided by the digital signature technique is reasonable, and if so, the digital signal measurement location result is stored in the database. Otherwise, the user location database controller computes the location in conformity with the RSSI measurements. Triangulation measurements in combination with the RSSI measurements may be used to compute a prospective location that is used if the digital signature-determined location is unreasonable and also tested for validity by comparison to the RSSI measurements. The prospective location can also be tested for reasonableness by comparing the RSSI measurements.