My phone and my wifes phone (both TB) are experiencing the gps outage in East Texas.
We live in Henderson, TX which geographically lies between Tyler and Carthage.
I have called Verizon repeatedly with little to no help so far. I have been told by customer support many times that Verizon does not support 3rd party gps apps like Google Maps or My Tracks; however, I'm not able to get VZ Navigator to work either.
After calling customer support and being reminded that they do not provide support for Google maps, the rep asked if I was able to use VZ Navigator. I quickly installed VZ Navigator while trying to communicate the real issues at work in our area of
Texas. Once VZ Navigator was installed, (yes, I agreed to the $10 per month) I opened the app to discover all the same issues. VZ Navigator doesn't get a gps fix. It just says, "Updating location..." and when you try to navigate to any destination from your current location, it says "Getting GPS..." until it returns with an error message. The error message reads "VZ Navigation is having trouble finding your current position. Please try again. (1001)
Once the 2nd level tech verified that I actually installed VZ Navigator and that was not able to make it work, she notated all I had to say about the gps issues and escalated the open ticket to a higher level engineer. She said I should get a call
tomorrow (05-16-2011).
She said the key to getting the issue escalated was VZ Navigator. It's not free. It's a Verizon product. She also stated that I can
stop the service once the issue is resolved. I encourage everyone living in East Texas with this issue to do the same. It's worth a shot!
I will keep everyone informed of my progress (or lack of) as time passes.
If anyone has a solution to the GPS outage in East Texas please post a reply.
Links to other forum discussions about the East Texas GPS outage are found here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1035665
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-general-discussions/143008-gps-outage-east-texas.html
Please help!
Here's a link to a user created map showing the gps outage area:
Here's a link to a user created map showing the gps outage area:
This is getting ridiculous, GPS and navigation have been out for over a month and we have to prove to Verizon there is a problem. I am getting really fed up of this.
I have always thought this was a GPS issue.. but i only use the free apps.. i complained enough to get 2 months credit for VZ Navigator.. guess what.. it uses the same gps chip in the phone and it doesn't work either. supprise supprise supprise.
How many weeks does it take?
As for Google updating a database.. in airplane mode, GPS still works... or used to.. ... i have done it many times.
Why does Google have to update something that works in airplane mode when all the transmitters in the phone are turned off? makes no sense at all..
fix your service or credit me something for the services you are not providing till you get them fixed!!!
It's been weeks and weeks and weeks guys.. COME ON!!!!
This is now a well documented issue. It is limited to East Texas (and possibly northwest Louisiana), and it is not limited to the HTC ThunderBolt (also reported on Droid X and Droid 2). We have numerous reports from people who have travelled in and out of East Texas and their GPS worked outside of the area and stopped working inside the area without them making any changes to their phones.
We have even started keeping a map of the problem area: http://bit.ly/etxgps
We need someone from Verizon to acknowledge this is a problem. Get your store employees to check with their phones and you will see what we have been seeing for weeks.
I just got a call from the Verizon Executive offices in response to the email I sent to the regional president on Friday. She said that they were not aware of the issue so I filled her in on what I knew. She apologized and said they would get to the bottom of it and she promised she would keep my apprised of the situation.
Ok, just got a call back from Latoya at the regional Verizon office. Once more I got the “it’s a Google problem and we don’t support third party apps” line. She talked me into trying VZ navigator and gave me a $10 credit to try it out. Here is the result. VZ navigator found my location with GPS when I went outside. I closed it and opened Google maps and it found me to the spot. When I came back inside where there is no GPS signal, it lost me and is putting me at a tower location. I really despise Apple and AT&T has poor coverage here, but I never had this lack of customer care when I was with them.
Update on issue near and around Henderson TX,
From ticket created April 26th
VZW performed network integration work in this area on 4/6/11. the issue the customer is experiencing is due to the delay of Google updating their database with our new SID/BID/NID for the area. Google states that this issue normally clears up within 2-4 weeks once VZW network changes occur. please advise customer of the timeframe for resolution.
According to that last post it seems like it should have been fixed by now (which I know it hasn't yet) or should be fixed any day now. Ill keep checking on this and there is another ticket that has been escalated to our network dept. Regarding this and should know more on that ticket in the next day or two.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
