The GPS satellites are starting to reach an age where the network isn't as robust and reliable as it used to be. But these satellites, property of the United States that is shared freely with the world, aren't free. And now some are failing.

Wired Epicenter looks at the matter and points out that a) we can lose a few sats and still have a complete network, but b) a GPS tax might be the best thing for GPS.

In any case, after you read their short piece and the longer GAO review, you should come up with a solution, or pretty soon the only GPS receivers we'll be looking at will be museum pieces like this one from the Smithsonian.

Slashdot takes a look at the bigger picture and suggests that the overall satellite constellations will be changing towards larger but fewer sats. That just doesn't work for GPS right now.