GPS without cellphone service?

S

sweetiegrl04

New member
Is it possible to use the GPS on the Droid cellphone to navigate in a foreign country that has no CDMA service or in an area with no cellphone signal at all? If so, how can I get maps ( especially Google Maps) onto my
Droid in order to see where I'm navigating? I'm very poor at tech stuff, so if you could be very specific, I'd really appreciate it. Thanks
 
You can't use Google Maps or Google Navigation without a mobile or wifi signal.

However, that are some free and some paid navigation apps on the Market that store the data on your SD card which will work without a network connection.
 
Little confused. Does your phone have real GPS (satellite, not related to cell towers or wi-fi)? Doesn't that work? Tell you what, shut off all your data service and turn on your GPS and see if it works.
 
The GPS in all mobile phones has nothing at all to do with cell towers. It's an entirely separate system, and the GPS in your phone doesn't need a data connection any more than your sat nav in your car.

However, it needs to know where the satellites are and their precise orbits. It can download this information, slowly, from any visible satellite, or, it can download this via a mobile or WiFi date connection, thus speeding up the time it takes to get a lock. Also, it helps if the device roughly knows where it is (to within 500 miles or so anyway), and thus knowing a course location via cell tower location also helps speed up a lock. All of this paragraph explains what Assisted GPS (A-GPS) is.

Google Maps and Google Navigation apps require a data connection so that it can download the map data for your current location. It does not store this nor does it have pre-downloaded map data. Therefore, these apps are useless without a data connection. However, the GPS will still get your precise location without a data connection.
 
I know my friend with the Nokia N8 can download and store maps for its GPS on the SD card over Ovi, so I imagine there must be a similar application for Android. Otherwise, the big problem I see is data roaming charges you might pile up if you're over-seas, for instance, and need to constantly download maps for the area you're visiting.

However, back to your original problem: if you're in Italy and there's no CDMA network, you can't download maps anyway. You (and I) need a program that will let us download maps.
 
Yes... like I said in post #2

You can't do it with Google Maps/Navigation, but there are apps on the Market (some free, some paid) that can.
 
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