Others have indicated that the Verizon GPS is not fully functional but the Sprint and others GPS are fully operational. Do the non-Verizon phones GPS operate without an external BlueTooth GPS receiver? Or is the problem that the Verizon 8700 won't even work with an external GPS receiver (other posts indicate that the Verizon does with with an external receiver).

Thanks!

Tom

Verizon cripples a number of their wireless devices (good reason to not use them IMO). I don't know why they decided to disable the GPS receiver in the 8703e but they did. It should be fine with an external receiver.

So does that mean the non-Verizon versions don't require an external receiver???

Yes!!! Of course, IMHO, when you go to another carrier you lose coverage all together, so would you rather have phone calls & data, or GPS?

Exactly! I need the phone and data more than the GPS.

VZ works with an external GPS puck. I use Cingular and in the US I think the coverage is equal. I am often with VZ users. We have 14,000 BB's in my firm. You have to make your own priorites.

My sentiments exactly. This is why after reading your extensive GPS review , I am going for the Wayfinder Navigator Lifetime, and the Globalsat BT359W. Simple problem, simple solution. Thanks for your extensive BB reviews!

OK... I may be stating what is obvious to everyone else but it wasn't clear to me.

I have both the Verizon 8703 and the Sprint 8703 side by side now. They both have BBMaps & TeleNav installed and both work with my TomTom bluetooth external puck. The Sprint phone however shows 2 GPS's, the bluetooth TomTom and the internal receiver whereas the Verizon 8703 shows only the TomTom external puck.

I had read the "Petition Verizon to Enable FULL GPS" post but it was unclear to me what "limitations" were.

Thanks all...

Tom

Certainly not in Southern California! Cingular falls flat on its face down here. Poor audio quality and lots of dropped calls. It's better since the merger, but not by much. Seems like pretty common knowledge in San Diego that if you want to have a conversation from start to finish and hear all of it, get Verizon.

This is not out of blind prejudice or perverse loyalty to Verizon. It cost me a lot to switch to Verizon and it was worth it.

Verizon needs to decripple the GPS, i would just love to see a corporate statement on why this is disabled and why they have GPS functionality built into the phones from the get go... just ridiculous...

Wirelessly posted (Thumpers 8700c: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8703e/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I think it's built in by RIM. Verizon chose to disable it, but it certainly would be nice to hear why. Some of us have speculated that it might conflict with something for which they want to charge. Don't know for sure.

IMO, VZW disables it because they have not figured out a way (or even spent any time on trying to) to get it to work with vznavigator.

I got a razr on a new phone line on a family plan because I do not want my BB with me on vacation or weekends, so I forward my cell number, but keeps me from reading mail!

Anyway, the vz navigator is outstanding, so I hope VZ works this out on the BB. It is a great business tool!

Once Verizon offers the service, it should work with just the phone, no external puck or other device needed.

People are obviously willing to pay for it, so I don't know why they don't want the additional revenue???