1. Shooperman's Avatar
    What Verizon is doing is ILLEGAL in any way that I can see it.
    Marine, i have sent a rather provocative letter to the editor of MSNBC giving a lot of the information you have sighted. Hopefully (but doubtfully) if the mass media gets involved, we might actually get something changed...
    05-15-08 01:20 PM
  2. jeffh's Avatar
    I'd be the last person to discourage either of you from taking whatever action you want, but you should read the history threads. There's been a tremendous amount of discussion already. One person has already taken this to the FCC, with an unfavorable outcome. The FCC accepted Verizon's arguments. I won't try to repeat them, just search the thread. Good Luck.
    Last edited by JeffH; 05-15-08 at 01:39 PM. Reason: added details
    05-15-08 01:37 PM
  3. Shooperman's Avatar
    I'd be the last person to discourage either of you from taking whatever action you want, but you should read the history threads. There's been a tremendous amount of discussion already. One person has already taken this to the FCC, with an unfavorable outcome. The FCC accepted Verizon's arguments. I won't try to repeat them, just search the thread. Good Luck.
    Yes Jeff you are correct, others have attempted this same argument and failed. It is extremely doubtful that any individual will even make a dent in the iron-clad legal defenses of a major corporation such as Verizon. However, if word gets out to enough Verizon subscribers, existing or potential, they might think twice about signing that contract. The media is an extreme powerful tool. Illegal or not, if enough people feel they are being wronged by a company with as much competition as the cell phone market, whoever is on the other end of the accusation might be willing to make some changes to keep the customer base and reputation. Even though our chances are slim to none, it couldn't hurt right?
    05-15-08 02:02 PM
  4. jeffh's Avatar
    Can't hurt. And I'm not defending them. They would be perfectly within their rights to charge for their value-added services (vzn), but not for the underlying tax-payer funded GPS. I don't think they'll be much swayed by complaining customers, since I would never give up their coverage in exchange for free gps, and they know it. Doesn't mean I like it, though.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    05-15-08 02:09 PM
  5. Shooperman's Avatar
    Unfortunately, you are right...
    05-15-08 02:16 PM
  6. Marine39's Avatar
    Can't hurt. And I'm not defending them. They would be perfectly within their rights to charge for their value-added services (vzn), but not for the underlying tax-payer funded GPS. I don't think they'll be much swayed by complaining customers, since I would never give up their coverage in exchange for free gps, and they know it. Doesn't mean I like it, though.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    Yes, and I have no problem with them charging for their SERVICE, but that's just the point... their "service" is the VZ Navigator SOFTWARE, NOT the GPS hardware which is provided by RIM! They have no right to prevent the end-user from using the hardware they paid for by buying the phone. If they have good software with VZ Nav (which I may add, they DO - in the new version at least), they should not be worried about people not paying $9.99/month for the software. But to charge end-users a fee to use the GPS hardware is clearly illegal.

    Imagine if a car dealership sold you a car that had air conditioning but told you unless you paid the dealership $10/month, they would disable the AC. Could you imagine the uproar there would be?

    Microsoft originally crippled Windows so that it could only work with Internet Explorer... in the end, the courts ordered them to open up their source code to programmers and now I'm sitting here on my Windows OS using Firefox... hopefully Verizon will follow suit with this GPS issue... and hopefully soon.

    JeffH, you make some good points and I have read pretty much every thread there is to read on the net about this GPS issue with Verizon, the frustration got the best of me and I just figured I'd post my 2 cents here.

    I'm gonna call some of my contacts at DoD and see if they can do anything about this. Hopefully one of them "knows someone"...

    Semper Fi,

    ~Marine39
    05-15-08 03:41 PM
  7. Marine39's Avatar
    Yes Jeff you are correct, others have attempted this same argument and failed. It is extremely doubtful that any individual will even make a dent in the iron-clad legal defenses of a major corporation such as Verizon. However, if word gets out to enough Verizon subscribers, existing or potential, they might think twice about signing that contract. The media is an extreme powerful tool. Illegal or not, if enough people feel they are being wronged by a company with as much competition as the cell phone market, whoever is on the other end of the accusation might be willing to make some changes to keep the customer base and reputation. Even though our chances are slim to none, it couldn't hurt right?
    A good point, Shooperman. The media is a great tool to get the word out to the general public about this. IMO this would be a huge issue but hardly anyone knows about it. I mean how many people actually have a GPS-enabled phone? Maybe 15% of cell phone users? Of those, how many are Verizon users? And of those, how many even know about this issue? Probably a really small percentage.

    If word gets out about this GPS issue with Verizon, consumers in general would be interested in seeing this unfair practice ended. Let's say AT&T and T-Mobile notice that Verizon is making tons of money doing this and they decide to lock their GPS hardware as well... I'm sure plenty more people would be pissed off then. My point is that consumers will have a vested interest in this even if it does not directly affect them at this point in time because it might in the future!

    Semper Fi,

    ~Marine39
    05-15-08 03:50 PM
  8. hopt44's Avatar
    I just got a BB curve 8310 day before yesterday. when talking to ATT customer service about gps service, HE told me to go to blackberry.com or crackberry.com and i could get a free download for the gps that doesn't run through ATT and i don't have to pay the $10/month. Does this sound right to you guys? I'm still learning the ins and outs of my phone, so i'm no expert by any means. Can anyone tell/explain this to me and IF it is true give me the link? thanks.....hopt
    05-19-08 12:54 AM
  9. integratedtech's Avatar
    I just got a BB curve 8310 day before yesterday. when talking to ATT customer service about gps service, HE told me to go to blackberry.com or crackberry.com and i could get a free download for the gps that doesn't run through ATT and i don't have to pay the $10/month. Does this sound right to you guys? I'm still learning the ins and outs of my phone, so i'm no expert by any means. Can anyone tell/explain this to me and IF it is true give me the link? thanks.....hopt

    I prefer gmail mobile maps but for voice turn by turn directions you might want to look at hxxp://www.nav4all.com (change the "XX" to "TT" in the link)
    not bad and is free till 2010.

    I would love to hear about any other gps freeware that other people like to use as well.

    also there is hxxp://www.amazegps.com but I haven't used this one yet so I can't say if its any good.
    Last edited by integratedtech; 05-19-08 at 01:54 AM.
    05-19-08 01:18 AM
  10. Marine39's Avatar
    BBMaps should have come preloaded on your device and you can use that one for free. There are also tons of free programs out there... do a search of the forum to find the lists that have been previously posted! Good luck and welcome to the forums!

    Semper Fi,

    ~Marine39
    05-19-08 01:31 AM
  11. jeffh's Avatar
    AT&T doesn't install BBMaps because they want you to subscribe to their service. But you can d/l and install BBMaps from the blackberry website. That's what the salesman was referring to. You will also have to install your device OS on your PC and remove the vendor.xml file. But you can do it.

    You will want to delete a lot of unnecessary stuff on your device to free up memory. Here's a procedure that will walk you through that and the device OS installation. When you finish this, you'll be ready to install BBMaps. Note the procedure assumes you have BBMaps already installed. Don't worry about that. Check back in if you have problems and someone here will be glad to help.
    http://forums.crackberry.com/f3/how-...-memory-34633/
    05-19-08 07:51 AM
  12. DrewP1337's Avatar
    so im new to the blackberry and everything going on here...I just added the data plan to my 8820 my provider is at&t im going to see how much use i get out of it and keep it if i use it enough. I downloaded nav4all and im going to get the freedom keychain..if i was to cancel my data plan will i still be able to use nav4all for free with my freedom keychain or will it charge me data?
    05-19-08 09:07 PM
  13. Marine39's Avatar
    Your data plan is used to download the maps in real time so unless you can find a program that will let you store maps on a microSD card, you'll get charged for the data.

    Semper Fi,

    ~Marine39
    05-19-08 09:27 PM
  14. jeffh's Avatar
    Your data plan is used to download the maps in real time so unless you can find a program that will let you store maps on a microSD card, you'll get charged for the data.

    Semper Fi,

    ~Marine39
    Marine39 is right about the data use. The Freedom Keychain 2000 only provides GPS reception. Here is a link to an earlier thread re storing maps on SD cards...Trekbuddy and Mobile Gmaps may be worth looking into. I haven't used either...

    http://forums.crackberry.com/f41/map...sd-card-35095/
    05-19-08 09:38 PM
  15. verncalhoun's Avatar
    Will unlocking the phone unlock the GPS as well?
    01-02-11 09:48 PM
  16. jeffh's Avatar
    No, unlocking won't affect the GPS. If you have an old Verizon phone, the GPS may be disabled. I don't know any carrier that disables the GPS in their current phones.
    01-02-11 09:50 PM
  17. verncalhoun's Avatar
    Thanks, I jumped the gun and found newer threads about the GPS being unlocked.
    01-02-11 10:20 PM
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