The folks over at WMExperts are reporting that Verizon has responded to the site's consumer-driven campaign for unlocked GPS with a stock letter, which reads, in part:

"In the case of open standalone GPS, we are partnering with the Windows Mobile device manufacturers to provide a software upgrade that will add this capability to the existing assisted GPS capability. This is a complex development project to provide open standalone GPS while maintaining the assisted GPS capability with the level of performance and security that our customers expect. The recently introduced Windows Mobile devices including Omnia, Saga, and Touch Pro are targeted to add open standalone GPS in the 1st half of 2009."

The letter doesn't specify whether or not such an update was planned before Verizon got wind of the campaign, but it sounds like good news to me, either way.