@Lars and I took adb bugreport and adb logcat -b radio -v time on his phone today. We sent the logs to beta[Ƥt]fairphone.com 
Hi,
It seems for me the GPS activation problem (see my post from Jan 23rd) has been solved somehow, at least I havenāt noticed it for 1-2 weeks now. So Iām starting to actually believe it 
Anyone who had the same experience or knows what has been changed? I am not aware of any changes made by myself (except for regular updates of apps).
Katharina
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Itās still happening to me. I also believed that this was over because it didnāt happen on my for phone for a couple of days (see my posting above). That was a false āalarmā
Hi all!
I am āsorryā for registering in this forum and writing in this thread - as I am (unfortunately) not a Fairphone owner but ā¦:
Iāve a ZTE Blade Q Mini, not rooted, with some quite vanilla Android 4.2.2 on it, since some time. This device has a āMediatek MT6572ā chipset (thatās why I researched for solutions like the āassert modemā setting, which is also mentioned here, as the FPs also seem to have Mediatek chipsets). And I assume this circumstance (and obliviously my carrier/provider) brought me here
My carrier/provider is - what a surprise - Drei Austria (Iām in Burgenland/Eisenstadt, by the way) and since many weeks (could be about middle of January, unfortunately I canāt tell it exactly) I have the exact same issue: GPS activates as soon as I get an UMTS/3G/HSDPA/HSPA+ connection! I could not say it is always the case, when I make or get a call - but I am also not always checking in which kind of connection I am (eg. if I get a call in the car). But I can clearly reproduce it - every single time - when I deactivate 2G/GSM (for not getting āroamedā to T-Mobile, I donāt have the best reception with Drei in my flat, so that happens quite often) and connect to 3G. Also if I activate and deactivate WLAN ā¦ and thereby reconnect to 3G: tah tah ā¦ same thing, GPS activates as if by an invisible hand.
And believe me: I checked and tried a lot of settings with A-GPS, EPO Assistance, GPS-provided time, etc. etc. ā¦ because: even if I already had the suspicion that this issue has something to do with my provider (first I thought about this āInlands-Roamingā between Drei and T-Mobile), I could only be sure after some excessive Tests with my wifeās and fatherās phones (they have the same model, but different carriers/providers and didnāt have these issues), I also made a full reset on one of them; but as soon as I put my Drei SIM in one of the phones and activate mobile connection (with 3G): same thing, GPS activates.
Actually Iāve is a quite old āOrangeā-SIM (Orange was overtaken by Drei some time ago), maybe this could be the reason? But I read in the thread that someone changed their SIM and had no success either ā¦
What might also be interesting for you guys: I got at least two research results with the same issues, both Mediatek-related:
The first with Vodafone Australia (attention: Austrialia - not Austria : ) in June 2016 https://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Android/GPS-turned-on-by-3g-connecting/td-p/411824 (a real fun thread to read, if you are the paranoid type ā¦ and honestly: I also thought I might have some issues with āCarrier IQā) - the āsolutionā there was a statement from Vodafone basically saying that there was a frequency change and the assumption (? or also stated by Vodafone?) by the forum user that the new frequency affects the processor/operating system combo and causes the GPS to be toggled when they connect through the Vodafone 3G ā¦
The second was with Globe Philippines in September 2014 https://community.globe.com.ph/thread/76419 where it seems that the carrier could solve the issuses!? Maybe this carrier was more interested to solve the issues, as on the Philippines might be slightly more customers using phones with Mediatek chipsets ā¦
I thank you so much for all your postings and descriptions!! I already started thinking I might be crazy ā¦ but now I am nearly sure: Drei (Austria) changed āsomethingā (whatever it was, maybe resulting from the EU guideline for free Roaming in the European Union effective since January 2017?!) what causes (some?) Mediatek chipsets to undesirably switching on GPS. But before I change my phone Iāll change the carrier - and if it works there - Iāll buy a Fairphone. IN YOUR FACE, DREI AUSTRIA 
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@schurl Welcome to the forum! 
Check out this quote from our bug report:
Thanks for the detailed report! If your theory with free Roaming is correct, we might be able to do free calls in Australia and the Philippines! 
oops ā¦ I hope my English isnāt that bad (or you just made a quite creative joke : ) ā¦ what I guessed was that Drei made some technical changes, because of organisational reasons ā¦ somehow related to the EU roaming regulation. I was just some wild guess ā¦ (e.g. to get better compatibility with phones from other countriesā carriers, with which they have better billing contracts or whatever). And it shouldnāt make a big difference, in which other countries the same issues occured ā¦ it seems to affect (some?) Mediatek chipsets, used by various phone manufacturers (and operated with certain Android versions as 4.2.2?) ā¦ and to be carrier-related.
Does Drei really know about the issue? Where did @Rene_Sendlhofer get this information from?
I was trying to joke! 
The quote by @Rene_Sendlhofer was there to confirm your theory of the cell update. He called them and thatās what they said.
PS.: Maybe if more people contact them, they will do something to solve the problem (or at least help Fairphone devs to solve the problem in our firmware).
Have the same problem with my FP1 and Drei as a provider. My husband has A1 as a provider. He does not face that GPS problem. Maybe, only switching the provider will help?!
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Interestingly then I havenāt had the problem at least the last 3 days, no idea why since I still have 3 and the same old sim card but seeing Mathildes reply then the issue is still there
I have the same problem. I got a new sim card 2 weeks ago but the problem persists. Interesting Detail: with the new (!!) sim card the phone says OrangeAT as the provider.
Stupid question: this problem happens only to Fairphones (or to phones with the same chipset) in Austria with Drei? Not in other countries with other carriers?
In that case Iād say the problem is Drei. The combination FairPhone+Drei worked for 2+ years. The Fairphone hasnāt changed. If Drei insists on āstupid old phone doesnāt like our new configuration. Not our problemā then Iāll have to find me a more customer-oriented carrier
Hi, I also have this issue:
Hi, Iām from Italy, I have WIND and same bug on FP1 (message #39).
Iām sending the log file created with adb on Ubuntu to the address beta@fairphone.com
I follow these steps:
1- Disable GPS and data on the phone;
2- Attach to USB, in a terminal start adb bugreport and enable data on the phone (time 01:50);
3- GPS symbol appears;
4- CTRL+C adb and start adb logcat -b radio -v time then after short time CTRL+C adb;
Hope that files are good.
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Thanx, mchlschw.
I was so happy about your procedure and tried it out.
Sorry, but with my Fairphone and 3 it did not work out. The GPS came back again, immediatelly.
It was an easy procedureā¦I could not follow the ones proposed above (I am not a nerd). Therefore, I was not able to do try them out.
Hoping for new easy to follow ideasā¦
Hello everybody,
I also had the same issue for two months and followed the discussions here hoping for a solution.
Last week I lost my patience and finally wrote to the Drei support myself. I told them that I would change my provider in case the problem wonāt be fixed soon. I also told them that I read in the fairphone forum that many people have the same issue and that it was already reported to Drei. Today I was called by the technical support of Drei and they told me that the issue should be solved since Friday evening or Saturday morning. Actually I didnāt not check my phone so often this weekend and did not pay attention to the GPS status. I checked it today various times and really - it did not happen any more!
The support person told me that the problem should be fixed for all Fairphones. In case someone still has the problem, I suggest to contact the Drei support themselves as well.
What was also interesting is that they seemed to have searched for the topic here in the forum and read it.
Good luck luck to everybody that the problem is solved for you too.
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Thank you for not just whining (āraunzenā) here on the forum, but actually doing something (talking to tech support). How very un-Austrian of you
Thanks of course to all the others who actively did something (generating logs for the devs) instead of just thinking āIām only a simple customer. They wonāt listen to meā (I feel a bit guilty here)
Yep. I noticed that in the last days I didnāt have to turn of the GPS anymore. But I thought that was luck (I had such days before). Thanks for confirming that this is no coincidence
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@Stefan it is a ZTE ā¦ and unfortunately, it seems not to be fixed (of course I tried a reboot, too); but I still have some pending contact with Drei ā¦ maybe that helps. Itās just interesting how this can be that āphone specificā ā¦
Yeah it is really weird!
PS sorry for the HTC/ZTE mix up. In my eyes it is a ānot-a-Fairphoneā.