Apparent GPS Failure

[MarkB]

Maybe there's some sort of time based bug like with the camera. Or maybe they fixed something on Verizon's end.

 

[crankygypsy]

spalding12, my knowledge isn't much more than yours ...just a basic understanding of the pattern of the problem (but not necessarily the problem itself) and the amount of effort that must be involved to fix it. i'm just rationalizing the issue in an attempt to speculate the remedy since this is something they most definitely want to fix. it is not doing them any good if any part of their plan was to stop expiring VZW accounts from switching to a lower-grade network just so the consumer could have an iPhone.

i figure there's several options if it is indeed PRL-related. i'm actually thinking that reprogramming/updating the Alltel PRL to be identical to the VZW PRL would be the quickest/easiest solution. then we would all just *228 and option 2 our phones. but then you run into the problem of those people who have grown accustomed to hooking up to a closer Alltel tower that don't use GPS. changing the PRL might negatively affect their reception for no benefit. then VZW would have a new problem to sort out. it is very likely that the word "easy" plays no part at all in this.

i don't have any solid answers. i just understand that it is not a quick fix and simply hope that they are not procrastinating on it.

as for reprogramming towers: i also know nothing about programming cell towers. but worst case scenario to relate to: imagine trying to get a Windows program to run on a Mac OS 10 yrs ago. what if they had the same type of obstacle?

i like my Droid and i know my GPS is capable of working so i have grudgingly accepted to wait for it to be fixed properly. i've lived without GPS for 34 years ...i can live without it a little longer. ;-)

 

[crankygypsy]

all of a sudden
the gps is working

last night, mine was working in a place it hadn't prior: on 275 northbound near 54th. i had 10/10 sats. kept up across the howard/frankland. i decided to turn it off and back on about midway over. when it cam back up, it couldn't see a single sat.

maybe they are doing what spalding12 was considering: reprogramming each tower. who knows?

spalding12, did you try to shut it off and restart it? if one tower was overloaded, your aGPS might've gotten "dumped" to a VZW tower. i would like to know what happens if you reset the connection.

 

[spalding12]

well....
mine is STILL WORKING.....
for over an hour
right at my house
in clearwater
maybe something is FIXED
hmmmmmmm
yippppeeeeee!!!!!!!

 

[spalding12]

one thing: it is VERY BUSY IN TOWN TODAY. "tourist season" has officially begun... does that have something to do with saturating alltel towers and pushing me to a verizon one?
i don't really know
but.....
i've reset the connect several times
i'm INSIDE my home
and it CONTINUES to work

 

[spalding12]

not working again....
i went back to "WHERE"
and... when it tried to find me by gps coordinates..... it never did
now....
even after disabling "WHERE," google maps can't locate me by gps coordinates, either

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
WTF, once again..... LOL

 

[spalding12]

pulled battery out of phone
restarted....
STILL NOT WORKING
are they testing something here today?

 

[spalding12]

never worked again. the theory about my being KICKED OFF an ALLTEL TOWER because it's super busy in my area of town to a verizon tower.... so the agps would work seems correct

now....
it doesn't work again....
LOVELY

 

[dirtleg]

GPS worked on Fowler today...twice...kept GPS all the way back to Brandon until I shut maps off. Turned them back on and no lock. I've been to numerous places to try and get my PRL changed, noone can do it manually. I'm still waiting on that call back from High Level tech support.

 

[Derekv]

Still not working for me in Tampa, off Dale Mabry and Ehrlich. GPS has never worked correctly here. It has been almost a month now, and I can't use one of the biggest features this phone has. I wish they would have told me when I was purchasing my Droid that former Alltel customers were having trouble with certain features (Visual Voicemail does not work yet either).

I am just worried that this will never get fixed, as it seems to affect only former Alltel customers in the Tampa Bay area with droids, which can't be that many people.

 

[ly92078]

Had a wonderful afternoon today. Decided to really bite the bullet...changed my phone number and billing plan to only Verizon, from alltel. No small feat. Spent over five hours doing that. When it was all done...NO GPS.

But they did give me a ticket number and would "send it to engineering."

There must be something wrong with me for being so persistent. When they gave the obligatory "anything else I can do for you" at the end of each tech encounter (about seven or so today), I should have asked for a psychiatric referral.

Phone goes back later this week.

 

[summerfieldjason]

So I have been an Alltel customer for many years, first in line to get the droid. Hasn't worhed in Florida but 10 minutes went to NYC worked the whole time I was there. So the notion that being an Alltel person and having Verizon tower issues doesn't make sense as NYC is all verizon towers.

 

[spalding12]

well.....
the day is almost over
again.... mine worked FLAWLESSLY... where it never had before
for 2 hours or so.... earlier this afternoon
since then.... NOT A DARN MINUTE
still isn't working
again.... no explanation

please excuse my language: VERIZON... FIX THE DAMN GPS.....
it's embarrassing
you think you're better than AT&T (which we also believe)
PROVE IT by fixing this critical supposed iPhone-killing feature

i've had enough
there's no way you can convince me it's that difficult to get this working on ALL DROIDS... ALL OVER THE US

if you think it is.....
fire your current engineers.....
the economy sucks....
i'm sure there's plenty of jobless geniuses out there who'll fix it in an instant....

start with the nice folks at georgia tech or MIT.....

 

[spalding12]

So I have been an Alltel customer for many years, first in line to get the droid. Hasn't worhed in Florida but 10 minutes went to NYC worked the whole time I was there. So the notion that being an Alltel person and having Verizon tower issues doesn't make sense as NYC is all verizon towers.

i think the point is this:
where your alltel-#'d phone has a "CHOICE" of what tower to use.... it'll pick an alltel tower... because of your PRL
but....
in NYC....
where there are ONLY VERIZON TOWERS..... your droid MUST choose one
and all verizon towers will allow ANY droid to USE agps data.....
alltel towers won't

 

[spalding12]

maybe the only answer is to systematically dismantle all the old alltel towers in the tampa bay area.....
hmmmmmmmm

maybe the MYTHBUSTERS can get involved in this "EXPERIMENT" :icon_ banana: