Being an IT proffesional who has numerous years in the IT and Telco industries I purchased a Blackberry 8830 Knowing the exact schematics of this device and that BB OS and RIM fully support GPS on this phone. After several hours being handed from one verizon rep to another then RIM then a RIM Manager then RIM Middle corporate relations manager then finally conferenced in with some one in Mid to Upper Level management from Verizon while the RIM Management person was on the line as well both authorized to speak on their companies behalf legally stated as follows: Verizonmgr: "Yes our Network Supports all of the GPS functions Present IN the BlackBerry 8830.' RIM Managr: " Yes the 8830 has built in GPS but Verizon has that function disabled in the firmware." Verizonmgr: "At this time our company has no plans to support the built in internal gps on this phone." ME: "But your website and RIMS advertise this as a supported feature. " Verizon mgr" We appologize for any inconvienience this may have caused you. But while the phone supports this function we have no plans to support or permit its functionality on our network at this time. Any more questions?" Me: "No, thank you for your time." RIM Mgr waits till Verizon mgr disconnects: " Mr Harris we appologize for this inconvience." Me:" not a problem thank you for your time as well have a good evening."

I have the names and direct lines to both of these individuals. This is Verizon's official statment as well as RIMs . GPS IS on the Phone but Verizon will not and has no plans to support it / enable it on any 8830 device on their network.