Is my GPS locked to Verizon?

[maggie922]

I live in the Extended Network, which means I already have to suffer sub-par data speeds. It's never really been a problem in my previous phones, mostly because I didn't have one that required a GPS to get at all the good stuff. I've noticed I'm unable to use any apps which require GPS location (google maps, endomodo, even HTC weather service). This seems ridiculous to me, considering that GPS are run off satellites, not cell towers.

I've been on the fence about rooting for a while now, mostly because of the Verizon bloatware that drains my battery, hogs processor space, and is generally useless to me because of my Extended-Networkness. My question is, will rooting the phone unshackle the GPS, or will I be limited to a bluetooth GPS puck for those times I do want access to GPS? Or is there a hack?

Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Wanda]

As I understand it, even without rooting the GPS is a standalone GPS. It doesn't need cell towers to function. If you go to settings, location, there should be 3 options. One is for Verizon gps, one is standalone, and the 3rd is Google location. I personally never use the Verizon one.

I am rooted and haven't noticed any difference in the way the phone interacts with my GPS and I use it quite a bit. In fact, I've been in an airplane at 40,000ft, in airplane mode and activated the GPS. It acquired the satellites and showed us moving across Arkansas. The map moved and everything, guess it had the maps in a data cache.

As far as your HTC weather, thats a cell phone tower/data issue. If i'm on wifi at home, its not uncommon to have my weather showing the next town over where my ISP is actually coming from. On straight 3G its pretty much always on my hometown. You being in the extended network might be a problem but i would think being on wifi would help. You could also look into a Femtocell or network extender. I think i read where verizon had come out with a network extender that would also support data, not just voice.

hope this rambling answer helps.

 

[Jude526]

for the HTC weather I have a problem.....doesn't work in my apt. stays on Arizona no city. It worked for the first two weeks of having the device. But when I am in my car it works GO FIGURE. HTC says there is an issue with it and they haven't updated it yet. Verizon says there is nothing wrong with the tower and they won't send out a tech to check it just over a weather app issue. I am using the fancy widget weather widget that I bought in the market and it works flawlessly. It says my home city when I am home and it works just great. Also has the fun animation that the HTC weather has. What I prefer even more to the HTC weather is you can select different clock designs and weather icons too and the clocks are smaller so it doesn't hide your home screen design if you should have something special for your screen. I don't intend to make the switch back to the HTC weather since this works so much accurately. I also think the HTC weather doesn't work because it uses accuweather and it isn't accurate. Fancy weather widget gives you a choice and I use google weather. So give it a whirl and you will see it works just fine.

 

[maggie922]

Thanks! I followed your directions -- it took a couple of reboots, and a lot of patience, because it took about six thousand years (OK, maybe it was really more like 15-20 minutes) for the GPS and the satellites to make friends, but it did FINALLY work!

Thanks for all your help!

 

[johnhboyd]

I like the GPS Test Program because it shows me the individual satellite signal strength, as well as acting as a compass, speedometer, and elevation meter.