Sure there is a royalty on some of the key parts of receiver hardware and software, but if you think that even comes close to the cost of the whole system you a

Sure there is a royalty on some of the key parts of receiver hardware and software, but if you think that even comes close to the cost of the whole system you are in for a rude awakening. Those royalties won't have even paid for the original GPS sats, let alone the newer stuff going up in modern times. The cheapest Iridium phone service plan is $50/month for just 10 minutes of talk time. Would you pay $50/month for 10 minutes of GPS navigation a month?