GPS enabled phones

[m_calingo]

It's time for me to upgrade my cell phone and I'm considering getting one that is GPS enabled. This type of phone requires the montly service in order to get directions.

The upside is that with a new contract, I can pick up a new cell phone w/GPS for under $100. The downside is that the GPS service adds $10 or so more per month to the cell phone bill. Another minus I can think of is that even with access to the GPS satellites, I might not get directions if I'm out of range of a cell phone tower, although if I'm using this to navigate around in the city, that shouldn't be a problem.

Does anyone use one of these phones...and what are your comments regarding these?

 

[G3]

Watch out for hidden charges. I went with AT+Ts upgrade your service and get free phone and got nailed with a $160 termination fee regardless if I had the same number and different service with the same company. Long story short, they will never get money from me, going on 3 years.

 

[smknman]

I have a southern linc a-gps enabled phone. The "a" stands for assisted (it uses the signal from the tower to get a more accurate reading). When out of the sevice area I can still get within 15 meters from my target (geocaching, hunting). I bought extra software (Trimble outdoors) for my phone which gives me access to topo, street, and sat. image maps, this service cost around $60 a year. I also have a data plan that gives me 750kb per month that cost $7 a month (this is shared between my weather scout service and the gps map downloads). I have been very happy with the accuracy and cost of these sevices, I now rarely use my standalone magellan gps receiver. I am not sure what service you are looking at, but I can download a trip to my phone before I leave so leaving the service area is no big deal.
www.trimbleoutdoors.com
www.my-cast.com/
www.southernlinc.com
these services are available on most wireless networks, not just southernlinc