Is it possible to get GPS information in a mobile device through APIs without having any GPRS connectivity?

Question

Is it possible to get GPS information in a mobile device through APIs without having any GPRS connectivity?

Edited

Yes, for example on the Java ME platform or Apple iPhone

Answer 1

Yes; if you are on a device that has GPS hardware in it and software development on the device gives you access to that hardware from your software.

This can be using a built in API for opening a COM port. You then just need to open the port that has the GPS hardware connected to (internal GPS receivers inside the device are often connected to a fixed COM port number) start interpreting the (often) NMEA strings that the GPS receiver is sending out.

Or perhaps the device has more specific GPS related APIs, like the GPS intermediate driver in Windows Mobile 5+ that lets the OS talk to any GPS receiver (either built in, or connected via cable or bluetooth to a COM port) and lets multiple applications concurrently interact with the GPS data.

P.S.

GPS has nothing to do with GPRS per se. You might have gotten that idea because of A-GPS which uses telecom network information and/or a dataconnection (like GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, WLAN, whatever) to download a small file with information about the location of GPS satellites.

This data will then enable your device shorter GPS aquisition times within the time period that this retrieved data is current - often a couple of days to a week I believe - because it does not just need to see what GPS signals it can receive and make sense of that, but it has a lot of prior knowledge about the GPS constellation that should be in orbit in the part of the sky you can see.

Answer 2

GPRS is a two-way data transmission which enables you to access the iternet while the GPS is just a receiver and as peSHIr already mentioned it has nothing to do with GPRS. GPS receiver receives the signals from multiple satellites and calculates the location from time differences.

Anyway... you need GPRS or any other internet connection only if you want to use any web service for reverse geolocation or you want to use google maps or any other location service. But just for receiving (calculating) the coordinates GPS by itself is enough.