GPS without dataplan
 

I know this has been asked many times, and I just spent the last 30 mins going through threads.
I have a BB Bold and I can't find any definitive answer if I can GPS without a dataplan. Can it be used? What app would be able to use it? GPS should be free as long as you are not downloading maps.

On-board vs off-board GPS solution
 

Seems like most of the GPS solutions for Blackberry are "off-board" implementations (i.e. you get the maps data from an external server).

I too have been looking for a totally "on-board" GPS solution, but for a different reason (I am in the US but need GPS when traveling to Europe and don't want to pay the data charges oversees).

I guess having no GPS "on-board" solutions is a SD card/OS limitation of the blackberry? Does anyone know of any on-board solutions or are there any in work?

That's something I've been longing for myself: A self-contained GPS unit for the BlackBerry with maps pre-loaded and with turn-by-turn directions. Here's how I envision it:

GPS unit holds maps and data and is responsible for routing. It will have a Bluetooth connection to communicate with the BlackBerry, which holds a program to interface with the GPS unit via Bluetooth and does the displaying and talking. Optionally, the BlackBerry can pull data from the 'net for data, gas prices, POIs, etc.

I'd just like a program that uses the internal GPS and stores all the maps on an SD card. Sure POIs, traffic info, etc could be retrieved over the air. This way no external data is needed to navigate (you would also be able to navigate during coverage outages - which for me happens in the mountains). Just something alla Copilot, iGo, etc on WM smartphones

I believe that the prior version or some version of the Garmin software did use maps contained in a sd card. I am not quite sure how it worked but their current version appears to use the live-data concept. Maybe attempting to keep maps current on SD cards was a pain or maybe people found using the cards inconvenient.

It may also be that the "convergence" of phone and active gps is not quite there yet. I find the recalc on my 8830 to be quite slow compared with my standalone Tomtom gps. Now part of that is probably the fact that the 8830 has to tell someone (the gps map purveyor) where it is when the route is "broken" and then get new maps via more data. I don't know if the route is even computed on the 8830 or back on some "mainframe" and then sent to the 8830. - just speculation on my part.

As I understand ,a data plan is necessary regardless of which program you use for GPS.
Either you'll be pulling down data to populate the map(Google Maps),or you'll be using data to acess telenav's registration system.
Either way your 'berrys using tower to phone data.The only unique component is the GPS reciever being bult in vs an add on or cell tower based locators.

Trekbuddy and Mobile Gmaps (NOT google) can both be used without a data plan. But you need to plan in advance, download appropriate data to desktop/laptop and assemble the maps for storage on your device. I don't believe either does routing - just maps and your location as long as you have downloaded sufficient map data in advance and stored it.

I've arrived and was about to post almost identical to this.

I don't need to have a roadmap downloaded from the internet, cant afford the WAP charges... I just need to know my lat & long. If I could have some self-contained GPS software which you can also see your location in relation to waypoints then all the better.

Pre 4.5 I could open Maps, it wouldn't load any, but it meant GPS became active and I could find my lat&long through options/applications/GPS. But now I can't open Maps so I can't even find my lat&long this way.

Gonna try those two things FF2 recommended

Carlisle, perhaps a lightweight way of achieving this would be to use bbTracker?

Okay, it's mainly a small freebie app for recording tracks that you can open in Google Earth on your PC, after transferring them (which is a tad cumbersome but way cool!). But the main screen, once you've started a track, will display such data as current lat/long, speed, height, bearing etc. in this manner:

http://www.stevesmith.id.au/images/b..._0_details.png

The direct answer everyone seems to be avoiding is: Yes you can.

The data plan simply allows you to pay less. Data is consumed when you use GPS, despite the fact that it technically should be totally independant of your service provider, but meh, that's big companies taking your every penny for you.

Anyway, point is, by paying for a data plan you pay less than you would if you used pay-as-you-go data.

Did you read the "All known GPS Applications for BB" thread stickied at the top of this forum?

That's not correct at all.

You can use your GPS receiver without a data plan. If you're on a BB equipped with a built-in GPS receiver go to Options->Advanced Options->GPS. Access the menu and choose Refresh GPS. You'll get your current latitude and longitude with or without a data plan. You can also geotag your photos without a data plan. If your GPS app doesn't require data you don't need data.

The current nav apps are what require data for downloading maps, routing, etc. The stickied "All known GPS Applications for BB" thread that no one seems to bother to refer to for the most part indicates which apps require data and which don't. It does seem to fall short on a couple of apps (e.g. Garmin does require data) but it's still a very useful resource.


The only exception to this are Verizon customers who want to use their built-in GPS receivers. Those people are forced to subscribe to VZ Navigator.