Beyond GPS: Why leading IoT devices require ubiquitous location intelligence

What you should know:

• GPS remains a foundational positioning technology, but it was never designed to solve every IoT positioning challenge: many devices operate indoors, underground and in dense urban environments where satellite signals are weak, obstructed or unavailable, creating operational blind spots in asset tracking, worker safety and inventory visibility.
• Hybrid positioning systems extend positioning capability into these challenged environments by intelligently combining Wi-Fi, cellular, BLE and IP signals alongside satellite data, delivering accurate and precise location intelligence across a much wider range of conditions.
• Qualcomm Terrestrial Positioning Service (TPS), built on the Skyhook Wireless acquisition, extends location intelligence to where GPS alone is insufficient - enabling personal safety, public safety, supply chain and geofence-based automation use cases even when satellite signals are unavailable or a live connection is interrupted.

As IoT deployments continue to scale across industries, one challenge remains remarkably difficult to solve: knowing exactly where devices, assets and people are at any given moment.

For years, GPS has been the default technology for location services. It works well when devices have a clear view of the sky and strong satellite visibility. But the reality is that many IoT applications operate in environments where GPS signals are weak, obstructed or simply unavailable.

As organizations increasingly depend on connected devices to improve operational efficiency, safety and automation, reliable positioning can no longer be limited to outdoor GPS coverage alone. Businesses need location intelligence that works wherever their assets go: indoors, underground, in dense urban environments and across global supply chains.

The limitations of GPS for modern IoT

Satellite-based positioning systems such as GPS have transformed navigation and location services. However, GPS was never designed to solve every positioning challenge.

Many IoT devices operate in environments where satellite signals struggle to reach the device or produce reliable results:

• Dense urban areas where skyscrapers and large buildings create multipath effects, causing signals to reflect and "bounce" before reaching the receiver.
• Warehouses, factories, hospitals and retail locations where structural materials and signal interference can significantly reduce GPS performance.
• Underground spaces such as subway systems, tunnels, parking garages and utility infrastructure.
• Assets that move between indoor and outdoor locations throughout the day.
• Compact, low-power IoT devices that may lack dedicated GPS hardware due to cost, size or battery constraints.

In these situations, inaccurate positioning can create operational blind spots. Assets become harder to locate, response times increase, inventory visibility suffers and organizations lose the situational awareness needed to operate efficiently.

Why accuracy and precision matter in IoT positioning

When discussing location technology, accuracy and precision are often used interchangeably - but both are critical:

• Accuracy ensures that the reported location reflects the device's true position.
• Precision ensures that location measurements are reported at a sufficient resolution to be consistent and repeatable, thereby enabling applications to trust the data over time.

For IoT use cases such as asset tracking, worker safety, fleet visibility, geofencing and operational analytics, both are essential. A device that is "roughly nearby" is often not sufficient. Organizations need confidence that people, equipment, inventory and vehicles can be located quickly and reliably.

How hybrid positioning systems extend location coverage

To extend positioning beyond GPS limits, organizations are increasingly adopting hybrid positioning approaches that leverage multiple signal sources simultaneously.

In addition to satellite signals, hybrid systems can intelligently combine information from:

• Wi-Fi networks.
• Cellular signals.
• Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons.
• IP-based location sources.
• Existing infrastructure already deployed within facilities.

This multi-signal approach helps maintain positioning performance across a much wider range of environments. When one signal source becomes unavailable or unreliable, the system can use alternative signals to continue delivering location intelligence.

Qualcomm TPS: Extending location intelligence to virtually any environment

Qualcomm Terrestrial Positioning Service (TPS) was designed to address the real-world challenges of modern IoT positioning.

Qualcomm TPS delivers indoor and outdoor location intelligence using a hybrid positioning approach powered by global Wi-Fi, cellular, IP and BLE signals, helping organizations determine location even when GPS is unavailable or challenged.

The service provides:

• Accurate and precise indoor and outdoor positioning.
• Global coverage across diverse environments.
• Context-aware location intelligence.
• Power-efficient operation for battery-sensitive devices.
• Flexible integration through SDKs and APIs.
• Functionality even when a live connection is unavailable through smart caching and token-based methods.

Additionally, Qualcomm TPS includes a survey and evaluation tool that can map environments using access point data to further improve indoor positioning accuracy while utilizing existing terrestrial beacon infrastructure, helping reduce deployment complexity and cost.

Real-world IoT use cases powered by extended positioning

• Personal Safety: Wearables like body-worn cameras, mPERS devices, offender tracking solutions and ever-evolving personal wearable agentic AI devices depend on reliable location information to provide situational awareness, improve safety outcomes and unlock new value.

• Public Safety: First responders and emergency personnel rely on accurate location visibility to improve response times, optimize staffing and validate operational activity. Real-time positioning can help organizations understand where personnel and devices are located when every second matters.
• Supply Chain and Logistics: Organizations can track fleets, shipments and assets throughout their journey - including the last mile - while maintaining visibility as assets move between indoor and outdoor environments. Additional context such as temperature, movement and handling can further improve operational oversight.
• Geofence-Based Automation: Location data can trigger automated actions when devices enter or leave designated areas, enabling context-aware alerts, operational workflows, all supported with an array of privacy features.

Designing IoT for superior indoor-outdoor positioning

As organizations deploy more connected devices across increasingly complex environments, positioning can no longer be an afterthought.

The future of IoT requires location services that remain reliable when devices transition between indoor and outdoor spaces, when GPS signals become unreliable and when low-power devices need precise positioning without additional hardware complexity.

Hybrid positioning technologies are helping bridge these gaps, delivering the visibility, awareness, and operational intelligence organizations need to optimize assets, improve safety and unlock new levels of automation.

Through its acquisition of Skyhook Wireless, a pioneer in hybrid positioning technology with 20+ years of innovations and 650+ patents in Wi-Fi and cellular positioning, Qualcomm TPS features the modern-day benchmark for mobile device positioning through its first-party location network designed to deliver more reliable positioning across virtually any signal environment. By intelligently combining GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular and historical location intelligence, Qualcomm TPS provides industry-leading accuracy and precision - even when devices move indoors, underground or completely offline.

Ready to explore how reliable indoor and outdoor positioning can enhance your IoT deployment?

Download the solution sheet to learn how Qualcomm TPS delivers more accurate, precise and power-efficient location intelligence - even in environments where GPS struggles or is unavailable. This resource highlights supported use cases, integration options, deployment models and the benefits of hybrid positioning using Wi-Fi, cellular, IP and BLE signals to help bring greater visibility, efficiency and operational awareness to your IoT solutions.

Or get in touch with a member of our team if you'd like to discuss details and challenges for a specific use case and how Qualcomm TPS can help.