So one of the announcements to come out of the Mobile World Congress this week was the demo of eGPS by a company called CSR. The ‘e’ is for enhanced, so what eGPS does is to enhance existing GPS. That’s right, not replace or substitute, but enhance, as in ‘help your current GPS work better’… kinda like that STP oil treatment you put in your car… it doesn’t replace the oil you put in your car, it just goes along with your oil to help your engine operate better.

It’s essentially trying to do a better job of assisting the GPS chip (similar to aGPS) in getting its bearings when it can’t see the satellites it needs or when the chip awakens out a deep sleep and awakens all disoriented. I am sure we’ve all had the experience of waking up after a long night after traveling or drinking and having those few moments where you think “where am I, what time is it??’ Well think of eGPS as your friend that is there when you wake up that says, “hey man its 10:25 and your at my house on my couch, there’s the front door!” Well, you would have figured that all out on your own eventually but your friend ,or own personal eGPS, just sped up the process for ya. That’s essentially what it’s all about.

GPS can certainly use all the help it can get in urban canyons and other challenging environments… but it looks like this new eGPS, like the old aGPS, requires carriers to deploy eGPS server around the networks, which isn’t a small project. So I’d file it under the category of cool things to look out for, only if a cooler thing doesn’t come along to leapfrog it before it has a chance to ramp up.

The GPS Business News article does a much better job of explain the ins and outs and pros and cons and I suggest it for anyone interested in more details.