I think you underestimate my knowledge base. While i did not work with aviation my self, my father worked in aviation his entire life. I also had clients in trucking and they were buying GPS units in the early to mid-90s to track their semis. So, I am not at all misled by anything I have known and studied in depth. YOU don't know what you are talking about on a phone you own. I do know what I am talking about on e911 and you haven't a clue. . . you keep making stuff up trying to counter my authoritative sources.
Actually the phone does have the chips and it does have an internal GPS antenna;
You have not ONCE posted a link that counters what I have posted. You posted a link to the Qualcomm processor page and I explained to you what you did not understand what you were reading with links SHOWING you what it meant. . . including A-GPS, and links showing that SPRINT and Verizon use MS Assisted GPS. . . and another link explaining exactly what THAT means. I posted a citation from an expert in the field. . . who explained that the PPC-6700 does not have the support chips or antennas.
All you have is somebody claimed that it does. . . and somebody made it work. But NOT ONE SINGLE LINK ANYWHERE COMES UP WITH THAT CLAIM! I've looked. I know how to do exhaustive searches. If you can find that proof. . . please post it. All I have found is wishful thinking and hopes of people who REALLY REALLY want their antique phone to behave like a modern phone with a real GPS in it.
YOU are obviously one of them and you post anecdotal stories about your recall of someone who knew someone who once said he read something about someone who had a third cousin who claimed to have done it. That is not evidence. I posted evidence that it does not have a genuine GPS capability, just the basic e911 capability that ALL cellular phones are capable of doing for emergency purposes.
Look, when I was promoted every new fire lieutenant was required to spend time in dispatch. I spent two long years at dispatch during the time we were upgrading to e911. So I do have knowledge about this subject... possibly even more than an electronic trinket salesman who owned his own company.
I am not sure why you spent so much effort on this inconsequential GPS issue. I admitted from the start that it was implemented in a way that forced one to use a paid service from Sprint or purchase a Bluetooth GPS unit.
I participated in numerous discussions about the GPS back when the phone was relatively new. I even recognized some of those conversations you selectively edited to support your position. As you found there were people who claimed like that they did not believe the phone had actual GPS. It was hard to know who to believe except for one major detail that could not be overlooked.
When using the paid Sprint navigation service the phone provided more accurate location information than would have been possible with “tower triangulation”. The service also worked in outlying areas with poor coverage where “tower triangulation” was not possible. It is not possible to “triangulate” in areas where there is only signals from one or two towers. It also behaved like a typical GPS unit from the time period where it would lose it;s navigating abilities inside a building or under heavy tree cover even when a cell signal was still available.
So the consensus at the time was that the GPS was there along with the antenna... but you try finding pictures of the GPS antenna on the Internet in a ten year old phone. Most of the forums where this phone was discussed are long gone... I have managed to find a few remnants at archive.org but that is about it. I feel the GPS was poorly implemented and other than not being able to concede a point where I know that you are misinformed it is totally inconsequential.