To achieve fast and highly accurate position estimation, you can do a few things.


  1. Go skating when much of the sky is visible. Any obstacles between the phone and the sky can negatively affect signal strength. A large tree is an obvious obstacle, but even a pocket or backpack can cause problems for very low-strength signals.
  2. Give your phone time to tune to signals from satellites. To improve signal reception time, keep your device in one place and make sure the device's data communication is switched on. This allows the device's GPS to get hints about your approximate location. Even in perfectly clear skies, it may take several minutes to establish a lock in some situations.