Why are cell phone companies still using cellular towers for locating cell phones instead of GPS?

Question

What are their reasons if almost every phone has a GPS chip in it now?

Answer 1

Because only about 10% of all cellphone have a GPS chip in it in reality. Most people have cellphones that are up to 2 years old or more, and the older the cellphones the less likely they are to have GPS functions at all. As more and more people want GPS features in their cellphones, the phone manufactures make more and more PDA-style cellphones with GPS in them, and tend to ignore the other cellphones. The main exception to this are phones made for the Nextel iDEN line - almost all of these phones have GPS built in.

Answer 2

There are a number of limitations on using GPS technology in cell phones to locate the cell phone, therefore the towers are more universally used to locate the cell phone if the GPS technology is not giving an adequate location of the cell phone. Below is a list of 3 limitations of the GPS technology in cell phones. 1 - GPS cell phones need a clear line of sight with the sky in order to establish a location. 2 - The user of the phone will be aware that the application is running. 3 - The user needs to ensure the cell phone stays charged because the phone is sending its location every two minutes and it is using more battery power than it typically does and will need to be charged more frequently. Any or all of these limitations may keep a cell phone location from being accurately determined. In some cases, only the cell tower locations in relation to the cell phone is the only technology to help approximate the cell phone location.

Answer 3

The towers are already there because without them, you can't phone with your cellular phone. And the companies don't have a reason to make big investments in gps technology when they already have the towers and they work as good.

Answer 4

actually most of the newer phones use gps but they still use towers for the older ones and if someone lets say has a "free phone plan" they can track where they are

Answer 5

That's not true. Not as many phones as you think have the GPS chip in them.

Answer 6

Its much cheaper to use and there are companies that do not want to invest in the extra equipment if the older technology works just fine.