this post was submitted on 08 Jul 2025
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How do you expect to get positional tracking while being offline?
Why would you need an Internet connection to use GPS?
I didn't say you need internet connection. But you do need a satellite uplink. So, I wouldn't call that offline. Clearly, many others do so maybe I'm wrong.
Is this what people think? That you need an internet connection tion to use GPS?
That’s what I thought. I figured things like the original garmins had a quantity unlimited but very narrowly usable data plan, like old kindles. I did know that gps was invented before the internet was widespread, but I figured that today it was like fax machines, where the vast majority don’t actually have a landline connection anymore and use the internet instead.
Based on this comment section, I gathered that it was something else, but still didn’t expect it to be fucking radio.
You also didn't open with "how do you expect it to work" without actually knowing how it works.
I wouldn't call a satellite uplink "offline".
There is no "uplink", eg transmission of data from the client back to the satellite.
Navsats and OpenStreetMaps?
A GNSS.
GPS via Satellites is offline! All satellites do(*) is transmit down to the Earth's surface. Those signals will exist whether there's a receiver there (ie. Your phone) or not. A GPS works by detecting those signals (ideally it will get at least 4 different ones for best accuracy) and calculating your location by triangulating it based on the signals (**). No upload on your end is required, it's very similar to how radio works.
(*) As in, all they need to do is this. Specific satellites have different features for different jobs and specs. But all they have to do to make GPS work is transmit.
(**) I mean "triangulate" as in the principle of triangulation, as in being able to determine the geography of a point via the topology of it to other known points. It's not actual triangulation with satellites because a fourth one acts as a correction factor -- we're dealing with signals going the speed of light after all. But that isn't important for whether or not GPS needs to upload anything to work -- it doesn't.