GPS Accuracy

[paulalex93]

Hello , does somebody know why the gps locates me as somewhere 20 miles different from where I am. This happens only when i am at home. If i enter on here maps and bing maps and continue to press "me" for couple of times then it actually shows where i am but after i close the app , and for instance i want to go to facebook to share my location it goes back to that place. Any thoughts? I tried downloading my country's map and use it offline but still the same

 

[shmsnh]

GPS takes a few minutes before it can get a proper fix on your location. Maybe that's why it takes time for it to show your actual location. Though, if you're not exaggerating about "20 miles", it might be a different problem.

 

[realwarder]

Sounds like a bug (miss-configuration) with your cellular provider - the local towers have the wrong location data stored against them and so when your phone requests its location it is wrong. After a while of the GPS getting a detailing lock from satellites it then corrects itself.

Contact your carrier.

 

[Vikram Dinesh]

As mentioned by realwarder, the local tower to which your phone is connected is not beaming down location (AGPS) information properly. So what the phone/app is doing is that it is picking up location based on your data connection provider's IP address. This happens quite often to me on my desktop PC running Windows 8.1 which doesn't have any GPS system attached to it.

So best option is to contact your carrier.

To illustrate better what I am trying to explain.

 

[foxbat121]

GPS requires clear view of satellites to get decent signal for a fix. If you are at home, depending on the construction of the house, it will block some or all GPS satellite signals. In this case, the phone can only rely on either WiFi locator (which depends on a 3rd party provider to know your neighborhood wifi AP locations) or through cell network tower location if you are not connected via Wifi and lastly the network DNS lookup if you connected to your home wifi to your nearby ISP's switch plant.