Techniques for supporting location services with a streamlined location service layer are described. In one design, a terminal may receive a location service request from an application that is internal or external to the terminal. The terminal may exchange at least one message with a location server to establish an extended location session of a particular duration via the streamlined location service layer. The terminal can thereafter obtain location service from the location server at any time within the particular duration of the extended location session, e.g., whenever a location request is received from the application. The terminal may obtain location service any number of times and at any time during the extended location session. The terminal or application may emulate a more complex location service based on location information received from all of the times in which location service is obtained by the terminal.