A “software issue” is affecting assisted global positioning satellite (A-GPS) location services for some Motorola Inc. phones sold by Nextel Communications Inc., forcing the wireless carrier to temporarily disable the transmission of A-GPS-enabled location information for E911 Phase II location services for the handsets until a permanent fix is found.
Nextel said its Phase I 911 service, which transmits a caller’s callback number and the nearest cell site to a public-safety answering point, is still available.
The software glitch affects Motorola’s i205, i305, i710, i730, i736 and i830 iDEN phones. Motorola and Nextel Communications Inc. engineers are working to find the root cause and to create a permanent fix for the problem, the companies said in a statement.
Meanwhile, A-GPS commercial location services capabilities, typically used for locating fleets of vehicles or to download real-time weather information, are fully functional on the Motorola i58 and i88 iDEN devices, Motorola said. Applications including cellular calling capabilities, Direct Connect, text messaging, short message service, voice mail and caller ID are still in use on the affected phones.
Nextel said it will continue selling its current line of Motorola iDEN phones, implementing updates as necessary.
SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. issued a statement saying its SiRFstarIIe/LP chipset and SiRFstarII/IP core are incorporated in some of the affected Motorola phones, but a spokesperson for SiRF said Motorola and Nextel have yet to determine whether SiRF’s technology played a role in the glitch.
“We just wanted to be really upfront about it,” Lori Evans said on behalf of SiRF.
