GPS has made a major impact on our world. How is it a free service that anyone with a phone can access? How is it profitable for companies to offer services like navigation without subscription fees or ads?
In: Technology
As far as GPS itself being free – you, or someone else, is paying for it with their tax dollars. All 3 major systems work on exactly the same concepts, and were initially developed for military use. They’re still primarily there for the military, and the governments that sponsor the 3 major constellations all definitely have it in their plans to degrade or disable consumer access in the event of a conflict. (Consumer in this case being anything outside the sponsoring military)
As far as free navigation, nobody said there aren’t ads. Google Maps is part of Google’s AD platform, with lots of businesses paying to both advertise there, as well as paying for some of the consumer data collected. Similar with the other free navigation platforms.
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