GPS with no cell service

Here's my experience on this topic. I was recently at a remote beach in SW Western Australia, with absolutely NO cell service.
However, i wanted to drop a pin in maps to pinpoint my location for when I wanted to go back.
If you open maps with no cell service, you WILL get just a blank screen - HOWEVER, GPS still works FINE, and allows you to drop a pin with no problems. When I got back to an area with cell service, there was the pin, in the correct location, now with the correct map.
So while it's not very useful when out of cell range, the GPS chip does know where you are, and you can mark your location for later reference.

The iPhone is not a pure GPS device. It uses A-GPS, or assisted GPS. It requires a cell signal to approximate your location and then uses the GPS chip to pinpoint.

Most phone GPS systems work this way.

GPS and Maps need a connection to the Internet to get the Maps. No cell or wifi, you are out of luck and off the map.

You can get latitude and longitude readings without getting the map from internet with some applications, such as:
<http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286022285&mt= 8>
If you carry a paper map, that will show you your location. It will also display the distance and direction to a starting location.

You need a cell service. And you need one that is working together with your iPhone. If you put your iPhone in AirPlane mode, there will but no GPS info. For the moment I use the app GPS Kit (great one) and it only works when there is a cell service available. In Blegium I have no problem using it. But last month I was in Germany and Italy and there you can use all the cell services available. All of them work well if you use it for making a phonecall, but if you want to use the GPS function, you have to choose the cell service that is supported. In Italy the GPS unit was not working with 'I WIND', but it was working with 'I TIM'. In Germany I had the same problem. It was working with 'E-Plus'. Here in Blegium it works with all the cell services (BASE, Mobistar and Proximus)

Ah, in a word, NO that's not right.

It uses cell towers when it can't see the sky. (can't see the satellites).
With a clear view of the sky it knows exact longitude and latitude coordinates (usually to within 100 feet or so).

The reason the OP couldn't find their location is because it draws maps from
web sources. No maps, no display.

If geotagging was turned on, taking a picture would still yield a geotagged image.

Unfortunately, I'm not not aware of any way to get the numerical Long/Lat figures out of the phone. Maybe something like Snail Trail ( http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=288352724&mt=8 )
or Breadcrumbs ( http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286545866&mt=8 ) or
gps Compass ( http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=286550480&mt=8 )
from the App store would be useful in remote locations.

evdh wrote:
You need a cell service. And you need one that is working together with your iPhone.

No. Not true. Read some of the posts above. You don't know what you are talking about. It does not need cell service.

Exactly. At last a voice of reason on this forum rather than people guessing at answers.

Why did I have to switch to another provider before the app gets a GPS signal. I'm only telling my story.

NO, as already mentioned iPhone uses assisted GPS, that is it has no satellite receiver and it gets this information from the cell towers to feed its GPS chip.

Yes, independent GPS units will use satellites directly and will work where no cell tower signal is being received by the iPhone. Conversely iPhone's GPS will work underground and in buildings where satellite signals cannot penetrate.

PGORDINI wrote: Am I doing something wrong or is there a workaround/solution to this?

A small word about iPhone and Google's GPS coordinates.

iPhone uses Google Maps, these are based on the pixel, this means they radiate outwards from the center, maps are read from the top left hand corner and as such are only accurate for devices using Google maps.

Use ordinance survey maps and use you iPhone's co-ordinate's and one will be about fifteen miles off target in a map block covering about ten square miles.

In other words, if the AIS and Radar breaks down in your cruise ship at sea, iPhone WILL put it on the rocks in reality. If you're a platoon commander and call in a fire mission from your iPhone, you'll miss by miles ~ unless, unless the fire base is ALSO using an iPhone ~~ 😉

it's rare to see so much misinformation packed into a single post.

I hardly know where to begin.

The best bet is to let that post stand on it's own merrit.

It has a real gps and will work where there is no cell service.

Any statement to the contrary is just wrong!

I'm reading many information here. For me it's very clear...
The iPhone has a real GPS unit build into the device. It's working fine when you don't put the iPhone in AirPlane mode. When I put it in AirPlane mode there is no information available, not in googleMaps, not in other apps like GPS Kit. Just test it for yourself if you have an iPhone. It can be that when in AirPlane mode the GPS unit is also turned off. I don't know that.
If there is a cell receiver available it's working fine. In GoogleMaps you first get a blue circle (coordinates coming from the cell receiver) and then there comes a blue disc which will finetune your location and it is using the GPS information.
But when I was in Italy I had to choose the cell receiver that was working together with the iPhone. When I selected 'I WIND' it was NOT working. I waited for 5 minutes. When I selected 'I TIM' I get the exact spot after less than 1 Minute.
So if you can, take your iPhone and test it for yourself.

Perhaps it's working fine when there is no cell receiver available (I didn't test this one) but in Italy and Germany I had to select the cell receiver that was working together with the iPhone. When I selected 'I WIND' I had NO GPS information available.