Mobile GPS services are steadily improving, and now that many new phones are GPS-enabled, they are easily within the reach of consumers. The federal government has given mobile GPS vendors a huge lift over the past decade, by directing Verizon, Sprint and Nextel to use GPS technology to improve the odds of locating someone who calls 911 from a mobile phone. Now about half of the phones in the United States have GPS, according to Berg Insight, a research firm.
The newer phones have grown more sophisticated, using cell towers — not just satellites — to get a fix on their locations. That is a step up from conventional GPS units, which typically rely only on satellites for orientation, and therefore take longer to get a “first fix,” as it is known in industry parlance.
The other big advantage of having GPS in your phone is what you can do with that location data.
Because your phone can get data feeds from your carrier, it can retrieve a trove of useful information. When these services behave the way they should, they will tell you how to avoid a huge traffic jam, then direct you to specific movies, coffee houses, Wi-Fi spots and the cheapest gas stations so you can make good use of the time you have saved.
