Please Explain: Assisted GPS

By Joseph Hanlon on 03 June 2008

If the current speculation is correct, GPS navigation will soon be as prolific a feature in mobile phones as it is in digital cameras and mp3 players. However, using GPS in a phone has opened up a couple of new technologies, namely assisted GPS (A-GPS).

When your phone's GPS receiver is struggling to lock-on to the GPS satellite signal, assisted GPS uses your mobile phone's active data connection to send the limited GPS signal it has received to an Assistance Server. This powerful server can locate the device by determining which mobile phone towers the handset is nearest to, and by interpreting the limited signal.

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