Why are cell phone companies still using cellular towers for locating cell phones instead of GPS?
What are their reasons if almost every phone has a GPS chip in it now?
Public Comments
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
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.
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.
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.
That's not true. Not as many phones as you think have the GPS chip in them.
