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By Greg Bartlett

Cell phone technology continues to increase, giving people more and more ways to use their cell phones. Today’s cell phones are used for much more than just contacting their friends and family members. However, one thing that is still lacking in effectiveness in cell phone technology is GPS tracking.

GPS & Cell Phones

Cell phones have had the capability for GPS tracking for some time now, but it does not work as well as people might think. People assume that just because their cell phone has GPS tracking capabilities that means that it is as accurate as any GPS tracking system, but unfortunately that is just not true. GPS tracking devices are far more advanced than cell phone versions in many ways.

The most obvious way that cell phone tracking is lacking is in accuracy. Your GPS tracking capabilities are going to be useless anywhere that you do not get a cell phone signal. Not only does a cell phone GPS tracker rely on cell phone towers for a signal, but it does not give the precise readings that other GPS tracking systems do. Real-time GPS tracking systems can give readings within a few feet of the exact location. With cell phones, you’re lucky to be within a couple hundred feet. That might be sufficient if you’re trying to find a broken down vehicle on the side of the highway, but it doesn’t exactly work when law enforcement officers are searching for a missing child in a neighborhood filled with houses and apartment buildings.

Battery power is also a huge factor in cell phone GPS tracking. With all of the new things that cell phones can do, cell phone batteries are barely making it through the day on their charge. Hour-long phone calls, hundreds of text messages, playing pinball, searching online, and checking email every hour all use up precious battery life. By the end of the day, cell phone batteries are hanging on for dear life. This is not the ideal kind of scenario for GPS tracking.

Unfortunately, these are just two of the many faults in cell phone tracking. In spite of what your cell phone company might try to tell you, cell phone GPS tracking is just not up to par with the rest of the GPS tracking world. So think twice before you upgrade your phone to be GPS enabled. Consider purchasing a real-time or passive tracking system instead.