Whats the Smallest GPS Transmitter?

[H.W. Stockman]

OT:
Well, you belong to the developing countries...

see http://www.gsmworld.com/roaming/gsminfo/cou_fi.shtml ,

Radiolinja and Sonera coverage. (Instead of cellular we say GSM.)

PS -- I did eventually find AT&T coverage maps for my state... and they are
nearly as complete as those for Finland. Well, that is claimed coverage.
I've been to a lot of those points that are supposedly covered, and haven't
been able to get a signal.

 

[Andreas van Hooijdonk]

Because of the Nokia?

 

[Robert Vivian]

Renault dealeers advertise a service that does essentially what you want.
However, the equipment is placed permanenty into your vehicle.

 

[H.W. Stockman]

Because of the Nokia?

Well, I hadn't intended this OT to go on so long, but since a lot of us use
a GPS and a cell phone for safety...

The answer may be: some of the problems may be due to that particular model
of Nokia (3560). One of my hiking partners has the exact same service plan,
but an older model of Nokia (by 1 year), and he can often get a call through
when I can't. Both phones are digital + analog. I've tried to get AT&T to
trade me the older model phone for my new phone, but no dice. I have paid
$25 to get a replacement of the same model, because AT&T was sure that
particular phone was defective... and have the exact same problem. I've
repeated this test at least 5 times -- able to call on his phone, not on
mine.

First, I was able to make calls from mountain tops for the first two months.
Then I revisited the same summits and was not able to make calls. Now, my
friend and I both take out our phones; his shows a signal strength of 2
bars, mine shows 4 or 5 (out of 5). If I manually search for service, the
phone tells me I have AT&T. I call a number, and immediately get a fast
busy signal. Repeat dialing brings the same result. He then gives me his
phone, and the call gets through -- to the same phone number. I try my
phone again, and get the same fast busy signal.

Back when this whole business started 8 months ago, I called AT&T wireless.
They first told me that my local rep had mistakenly sold me a digital-only
phone; that proved not to be true. I went back to the local store, where I
was offered a different model for $100, with no guarantee that it would work
any better. Several reps told me that I shouldn't expect service in the
mountain areas; I replied that the coverage maps showed service in those
areas, and those coverage maps were the reasons I bought their service.
They were unmoved by this argument (phone companies are not tied to promises
in the USA).

I just found the coverage maps again... and they still show coverage in
those areas (that for me cause problems). And there is coverage; just not
for my phone. I have been incredibly amazed by how indifferent AT&T is to
this problem.

 

[Dave Baker]

Ok so the TrimTrac may not be an "all in one" after all. You have to
buy translation accessories and map software. Now I see why they call
it cheap The others come with all these things already.

Well, there is hardware & there are services. If you buy a service it will
usually come with maps & access to a website or similar - I haven't seen any
hardware products that come with maps & apps that will run on your own
computer. Even if they did, they wouldn't be much good to me as I live in
Malaysia & I can't imagine a US product supplying street level maps of
Malaysia.

If you are in the USA or Europe you can get Mappoint or other software very
cheap, or even free street level viewers.

When you say expensive you mean uses up a lot of battery life, right?

Well, it does, but that's not what I meant. Here in Malaysia it costs us
US$0.05 per SMS. 10 per day is US$15/month just for SMS bill, and you SIM
card rental on top of that (another US$15/month here). If I'm trying to sell
these to customers I'm up for US$30/month in expenses before I pay for my
hardware or make any profit. I have some Falcom modules which are similar to
the TrimTrac but heaps of crap - one of them lost it's mind & transmitted
every minute for over a day - US$70 worth of SMS in one day!

What seems to be the retail and wholesale prices? Just curious.

US$280 for the cheapest ones for single unit quantities. US$184 if you want
to buy 20,000 of them! Retail - I'm getting them at about the above price
with the promise of larger volumes if any good.

Where would I get these other accessories I will need with it?

Same dealers. There is a starter kit for US$900 which has everything you need
if you want to develop an application around these units - comes with all
sorts of stuff.

Dave


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[Chris Malcolm]

So what is the point of the childs watch? Unless he is outside in
plain sight, wouldn't it be pretty much useless? If he were inside a
building of any kind, or even in a car, it wouldn't transmit.

I didn't realize we were still this incredibly behind in our GPS
technology capabilities.

Behind what? The science fiction movies?

I have a feeling the millitary bypassed this
silly obstacle years ago.

You need to see someone about these misleading feelings you're
getting.