Sunday, August 8, 2010

T-Mobile GPS: The Plot Thickens

As if Vibrant's GPS problems weren't enough...

Last night, I'm driving home following GPS directions. At midnight, GPS goes Boom! and loses the signal.

On both our G1 phones.

GPS Test shows 0 satellites of 1 available on both phones (vs. average 8 of 9 to good of 12 of 13).

Comes morning, it's the same.

Check with a friend of mine who also has G1, same thing.

Call T-Mobile, they sound surprised, but the Android rep I was transferred to did confirm that indeed, GPS seems to be dead, moreover, it's not just Android that is affected, quote "three of my Blackberries also have dead GPS".

Of course, no ETA on the fix, given the scale.

I wonder if instead of fixing Vibrant they decided to break GPS? </sarcasm>

But realistically, given the timing, the wild bet would rather be on expired security certificates that someone was supposed to renew, but forgot (or got laid off and the expiration date got lost in translation - you know how it goes).

Wonder when this is going to splash out into the big Internet, and wonder how come it hasn't 15 hours after inception - must be the Sunday.

2 comments:

  1. GPS signal is so easy to break it could have been done by anything. There are walkman sized battery powered devices capable of making GPS signal unusable within several miles.

    Also military often jams GPS while they test how their system will operate in war like conditions. I suggest you read:
    https://www.notams.jcs.mil/dinsQueryWeb/displayGPSWAASNotamAction.do

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  2. I don't know if that could be the case - the span of the area affected was over 40 miles, and I don't even know where the T-Mobile rep that told me that his Blackberries also didn't work was.

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