Wirelessnorth.ca

Caught this little gem over on the Wellington Financial blog. Bell to be clawing back native GPS services from their devices unless you pay a new monthly fine fee.

A number of mobile-related blogs and message boards are starting to pick up on a story that based on an internal memo, in the coming weeks, Bell will begin to interfere with the GPS signal that late-model Blackberry units (including the 8830, 8130 Pearl and 8330 Curve) receive.

Users of free GPS mapping applications (such as Google Maps or even the included Blackberry Maps application by RIM) will see the time required to establish a GPS lock increase to 2-10 minutes, up from the typical 15-20 seconds usually experienced. Additionally, there is some speculation that the resolution of GPS data will also be reduced to a 1-2.5km range as opposed to the existing 10-25m accuracy currently provided — not exactly useful when trying to find the location for your next meeting downtown in an unfamiliar city.

Of course, the existing level of service for GPS data can continue to be received, provided subscribers start to pay upwards of $10 a month to gain access to Bell’s own GPS service (”GPS Nav”).

Link: “Pay us or get lost!” (Literally!)

Apparently, this move follows Verizon’s recently clever idea to block all GPS access to third party apps, in order to help the sale of their own mapping application.

Now, we’ve heard of net neutrality. Can we talk about satellite neutrality?