New GPS Service for Mobiles from Verizon

To start, the subscriber downloads the VZ Navigator applet through Verizon's Get It Now service. Then, when you want to go on a trip, you start VZ Navigator and by using your phone's keypad you enter a city and a street address; if you know the ZIP code that can be a five-character shortcut replacement for city and state. The phone gets a quick fix on your location by triangulating on the nearest cell towers (which are all GPS-equipped on carriers using CDMA technology, meaning Verizon and Sprint).

Meanwhile, the phone company servers download mapping information from Navteq maps to your phone, typically a few kilobytes that download in less than a minute of chargeable airtime. Your handset disconnects from the network, the phone locks into the orbiting GPS satellites, and routing begins. Subscribers get a map that moves as they travel. At the moment the service is only available on the new Motorola V325, which costs around USD 80. Other phones will follow in 2006.

Verizon didn't say if existing phones with GPS receivers can be adapted; analysts think that's unlikely though, because carriers generally want their subscribers to buy new phones and lock in service contracts for another year or two, to get new features.