This is mainly an android (v4 - v11) problem but also happens on iphones.
You can find thousands of threads via google going 15 years back without any one-way solution, blamed on software and hardware 50/50.
Personally I've been having this battle as well even going as far to replacing all antenna's which worked for about 6 months and then I was back to zero (which fits the theory about 4g signal flooding and interfering with gps combined with the ever expanding number of masts and/or higher signal output).
There are specialized forums about this but there are many and not really in a mood to register everywhere so lets see how far I get here.
What I find interesting is that many 'solutions' go about flight-mode on/off and gps on/off to kick start gps function, where I noticed when I'm on the African continent and force 3g usage over 4g usage my gps works most of the time.
So I did a little test (again) using the common gps android tools to see how many sats it sees and how many get locked.
With 4g on I see 30+ sats and between 0-3 locks which quickly go to zero and stay zero for minutes, but when I switch 4g off I get 5-13 locks and that stays locked continuously.
This behavior fits what I experience in Africa (as 4g drains my battery 10x faster then 3g and is why over there I always go back to 3g) here in EU 3g is nearly phased out so no option to do this here.
After years of having this issue with many phones I decided to get a Qstarz BT-Q818XT (gps via bluetooth) which solves this permanently, but it does lead me into a conclusion 4g (either on the phone or the 4g provider masts) is causing interference. (see my note about flight-mode on/off and gps on/off to kick start gps).
Notes about gps vs. gsm interference:
My question here is, can anyone find a way to debunk or confirm this?
You can find thousands of threads via google going 15 years back without any one-way solution, blamed on software and hardware 50/50.
Personally I've been having this battle as well even going as far to replacing all antenna's which worked for about 6 months and then I was back to zero (which fits the theory about 4g signal flooding and interfering with gps combined with the ever expanding number of masts and/or higher signal output).
There are specialized forums about this but there are many and not really in a mood to register everywhere so lets see how far I get here.
What I find interesting is that many 'solutions' go about flight-mode on/off and gps on/off to kick start gps function, where I noticed when I'm on the African continent and force 3g usage over 4g usage my gps works most of the time.
So I did a little test (again) using the common gps android tools to see how many sats it sees and how many get locked.
With 4g on I see 30+ sats and between 0-3 locks which quickly go to zero and stay zero for minutes, but when I switch 4g off I get 5-13 locks and that stays locked continuously.
This behavior fits what I experience in Africa (as 4g drains my battery 10x faster then 3g and is why over there I always go back to 3g) here in EU 3g is nearly phased out so no option to do this here.
After years of having this issue with many phones I decided to get a Qstarz BT-Q818XT (gps via bluetooth) which solves this permanently, but it does lead me into a conclusion 4g (either on the phone or the 4g provider masts) is causing interference. (see my note about flight-mode on/off and gps on/off to kick start gps).
Notes about gps vs. gsm interference:
Is there any effect on mobile signal strength if it encounter GPS...
Is there any relation between the interference of mobile signals and the bluetooth signal strength.
www.researchgate.net
Proposed 4G network interferes with GPS signals, test shows
LightSquared's satellite and ground-station network operates right next to Global Positioning Systems in the radio frequency spectrum.
gcn.com
My question here is, can anyone find a way to debunk or confirm this?