Hello there,

Just received out BB 8830, like it well except..... the 8830 will not acquire GPS satellite signal without radio service (Sprint says it needs data service for GPS to work). This seems to be confirm by previos thread

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...learnings.html

Quite often i would travel to places that the cell coverage would be spotty or overseas where there is no data plan avaible. I would at least like to have a track my way back if the GPS worst on its own. Seems like BB is misrepresenting the capability og the BB GPS function.

Can someone confrim my observation?


Thank you

GPS will never work overseas - not with the internal chipset atleast..

Yes, you need network coverage for GPS to work. The GPS apps send updated maps, directions, etc via the network. The device will continue to track after leaving coverage for a while but you need network to initiate.

Actually, my 8830 GPS never work outside network connection. Go figure, expecially since 8830 is supposed to have both kinds of GPS.

The issue is the network probably sends the almanac to the phone so the GPS chip can get a fast fix since it does have to wait for up to 60 seconds to get the almanac data like a cold start GPS would take.

So without network coverage you cant get this, but then another issue happens currently you cant get pre loaded maps on the blackberry, so even if the internal GPS chip gets a fix without having network data it will just have coordinates and nothing to do with them.

Yeah? Learn something new everyday. Thanks

I recently came form Europe and the GPS becomes disable the moment I am outside Sprint network. I do connect to local networks like Orange and I do get data and voice connection but the GPS is disabled.
I called Sprint and they said they are working on it, bla, bla bla. I am extremely disappointed with Sprint.
I am convinced that there is a crack for this one. Must be a Sprint setting deactivating the GPS when it does not see the Sprint network.
Anyone knows a fix for this?

Thx

We wish it was easy to go in and edit some registry like on a windows mobil phone, but thats not the case with blackberry...

It has to do with the Qualcomm GPS chipset and the satellites. This isn't a Sprint issue. It's a fact of life with CDMA.