Don’t Waste Money on Carrier GPS Navigation Services
In this incessantly growing world of freely available software services & products, do you really need other outmoded, redundant and paid services from money-hungry companies? The answer is simple, no!
GPS, Maps and Navigation have become few of the many important services which should be available on your mobile phone or tablet. They help you go around in your city, help you navigate while traveling or simply help you look for places of interest.
The question here is whether you should needlessly pay your phone carriers for these services or use some of the more favored and freely available ones.
Paid Carrier GPS Navigation Services
The AT&T Navigator service by AT&T is provided at $9.99 USD per month. That makes it $9.99 USD x 12 = $119.88 USD per year. They offer voice-guided and visual turn-by-turn GPS driving directions, colored maps, and real-time traffic statistics.
In spite of being a paid service, the miserable ratings and user reviews of AT&T Navigator at Google Play Store clearly show its quality of having no practical use. The scenario doesn’t change with its iOS app either.
The VZ Navigator service by Verizon is offered at $4.99 USD per month. That makes it $4.99 USD x 12 = $59.88 USD per year. This service includes route selector, turn-by-turn spoken directions, traffic alerts, and address discovery.
In spite of people paying for VZ Navigator, its user ratings and reviews on Google Play Store are below the desirable level, which demonstrates its unsatisfactory experience. Similar is the case with its iOS app.
Freely Available GPS Navigation Products
Looking at the scenario postulated above, I do not see a single reason for you to pay for a GPS Navigation service offered by your mobile carrier.
There are other well-qualified, prevalent and credible GPS Navigation services & products available today for which you don’t even pay a cent. Few of such services are:
Google Maps
Google Maps is undoubtedly the most widely used and candid GPS Navigation software offered by Google, for free. It offers detailed maps with 3D buildings, voice-guided turn-by-turn GPS navigation, driving and walking directions, live traffic information, local places and business search, street view, and indoor maps for selected entities.
People over the globe have appreciated Google Maps. Gizmodo rates it at 4.5/5, US Today welcomes it happily, and CNet applauds its user experience.
The user ratings and reviews of Google Maps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store evidently exhibits its quality of user experience and data accuracy.
Apple iOS Maps
Albeit with the initial glitches and irregularities in Apple’s iOS Maps, Apple is continually improving it for better experience and preciseness. Apple’s CEO talked of a “huge plan to make it even better”, and they are putting a lot of resources behind it. It offers spoken turn-by-turn directions, interactive 3D views, local searches and real-time traffic data.
Nokia Maps, Nokia Drive
Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive are GPS, Maps and Navigation services offered by Nokia for their smartphones. They include turn-by-turn voice-guided navigation, location discovery, trusted recommendations, and travel guides.
Waze
Through the use of community crowd sourcing Waze adds an unique aspect to its free Navigation service. By collecting real time data from other Waze users on the road it can optimize your routes to save you time and money, and through community contributed reports alert you to traffic accidents, road hazards, police traps and other issues.
It supports a completely hands free usage through voice control and voice guidance. Waze is used by over 30 million people, and is highly rated at both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
With so many better and freely available options, do you really need to pay your mobile carriers for their uncompetitive GPS Navigation services?
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