GNSS

Share in GLONASS for India

Russia is seriously considering building a broad international consortium for the development and implementation of the Russian GLONASS on a global scale.

“We have prioritized the countries -firstly the states where GLONASS may be required for geopolitical reasons,” says Navigation Information Systems (NIS, formerly NIS GLONASS) Chief Executive Alexander Gurko says. “We could invite India, Kazakhstan, Brazil, South Korea and several other countries into the consortium.”

These countries have traditionally been considered as the priority markets for the GLONASS technology, except perhaps South Korea. The idea of bringing India as a strategic partner for the development of GLONASS was discussed several times at the highest level. In 2007, then-Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said that India was ready to participate in the development of GLONASS, providing rockets for launching satellites and helping to develop new spacecraft for the navigation system.

According Gurko in the early 2000s, India itself actively offered investments in GLONASS to the Russian government. “I met with the director of the Indian Space Agency at that time. He expressed bewilderment why Russia refused the idea of investment then, because it was obvious that this investment would offer many opportunities of opening a new and huge GLONASS market, and to build an appropriate technical regulation in the Indian market.” http://indrus.in/

New Law All but Bars Russian GPS Sites in U.S.

Tucked into the mammoth defense budget bill that President Obama signed into law is a measure that virtually bars Russia from building about a halfdozen monitor stations on American soil that critics fear Moscow could use to spy on the United States or worse. Russia first broached the idea of erecting the domed antenna structures here nearly two years ago, saying they would significantly improve the accuracy and reliability of GLONASS.

As the White House sought to reconcile the internal squabbling among government agencies, skeptical members of the intelligence and armed services committees in Congress intervened to deal a near-crippling blow to the prospect of Glonass stations in the United States.

Under the new law, unless the secretary of defense and the director of national intelligence certify to Congress that the monitor stations would not be used to spy on the United States or improve the effectiveness of Russian weaponry — or unless they waive that requirement altogether on national security grounds — the plan is dead. www.nytimes.com

GPS mandatory for Gurgaon cabs

Vehicles used by companies in Gurgaon in India to ferry employees will have to be equipped with GPS. The orders will come into force with immediate effect and shall remain in force till further orders. www.mizonews.net

Russian mobile operators to support Era-Glonass

The three major Russian mobile operators, MTS, Megafon and Beeline, will start providing Glonass, the operator of the emergency system Era-Glonass, with access to their radio sub-systems by the end of the year. Glonass will be able to access the networks as a MVNO. Beeline and MTS have already signed agreements with Glonass on the issue, and Megafon plans to sign an agreement before the end of the year. www.telecompaper.com

Warning for delays in launching GLONASS programs

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin warned governors about delays in developing regional programs to launch the GLONASS. Those who can offer no sound excuse for delaying the launching of GLONASS programs will be summoned to Moscow and reprimanded, Rogozin warned at a session of the Military-Industrial Commission on civil use of the GLONASS system. http://indrus.in/

Rohde & Schwarz GNSS Simulator Now Supports Chinese BeiDou Standard

Rohde & Schwarz has added BeiDou functionality to its GNSS simulator integrated into the company’s R&S SMBV100A vector signal generator. With the R&S SMBV-K107 option the GNSS simulator now covers the BeiDou standard as well as those for GPS, Galileo, and GLONASS.

Now available, the new option allows users to generate real-time scenarios with up to 24 BeiDou satellites. According to the company, the R&S SMBV-K107 supports all possible BeiDou orbits and can therefore even simulate satellites that are not yet in orbit. It also supports hybrid scenarios with GPS, Galileo, or GLONASS signals and satellites. A software update simplifies the BeiDou upgrade; no hardware modifications are required.

GPS for buses, vans and trucks in Thailand

The Transport Company will next year equip all of its franchise buses and vans with the (GPS) for safety, Transport Minister of Thailand, Chadchat Sittipunt wrote in his Facebook page. He sent the message after visiting the Land Transport Department’s GPS centre. He said all of the 659 buses of the Transport Company and 2,263 trucks for transporting dangerous substances like chemicals, gas and oil have been equipped with GPS which enables officials to monitor the speed and behaviour of the driver of each vehicle all over the country. As a result, the number of accidents has been reduced and driver behaviour has improved. Next year the Transport Company has a plan to install GPS in 4,385 franchise buses and vans operating under its authority and 6,191 trucks transporting dangerous substances, Mr Chadchat wrote. www.bangkokpost.com

Beidou to cover world by 2020 with 30 satellites

China is planning to expand its homegrown Beidou navigation system by 2020 and make it accurate to within centimeters. Currently the system can reach an error margin as low as 5 meters in trials and can be further improved to within centimeters to compete with the dominant US GPS. Xinhua News Agency

Russia to secure Glonass against electronic warfare

The Russian Ministry of Defense has launched a project aiming to secure Glonass against enemy disruptions of signals. The ministry has handed a 350 million ruble (US $11 million) contract to two local entities, the Russian Scientific-Research Institute of Physical-technical and Radiotechnical Measurements (VNIIFTRI) and NAVIS navigation systems. The two contractors are to increase the system’s immunity to electronic warfare. www.defensenews.com

New Land-Based Positioning System by Iranian Defense Ministry

The Iranian Defense Ministry has unveiled a home-made Land-Based Positioning System with applications in different military, aviation and navigation industries.

According to Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan , “Positioning is one of the principles of military operation in the air, on land and on the sea. Elaborating on the performance of the Land-Based Positioning System, he said, “Using this method, the positioning signals are transmitted through radio transmitting stations located on land and those interested will find their position with some levels of accuracy by receiving radio. http://english.farsnews.com/

GPS tracker to map illegal structures in India

A little known GPS device is helping civic officials in Thane to map illegal buildings. The tiny Trimble Juno SB scans interiors and external contours of a structure within minutes by just a handheld tour of any edifice. The corporation has so far scanned and mapped 160 structures with the help from this device. Once the scanning is completed by the device, the data is uploaded onto a central server, which could be accessed by anyone at the ward level.

Since it launched a special drive earlier this year, the corporation has cracked down on 200 illegal structures. The mapping of illegal structures has helped immensely in speeding up the process. http:// articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/

GPS/GNSS Devices Market to record 4.6% CAGR through 2023

The overall spending on GPS/GNSS devices and systems is likely to stay robust through upcoming decade. The worldwide market for GPS/GNSS devices is poised to register a 4.6% CAGR through the next ten years. The key growth stimulators include, among others, tremendous advancements in anti-jamming, increased expenditure on satellite navigation programs, as well as expanding applications for the GPS technology. www.prweb.com

NSA tracking cellphone locations worldwide, Snowden documents show

The National Security Agency is gathering nearly 5 billion records a day on the whereabouts of cellphones around the world, according to top-secret documents and interviews with U.S. intelligence officials, enabling the agency to track the movements of individuals — and map their relationships — in ways that would have been previously unimaginable.

The records feed a vast database that stores information about the locations of at least hundreds of millions of devices, according to the officials and the documents, which were provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. New projects created to analyze that data have provided the intelligence community with what amounts to a mass surveillance tool. www.washingtonpost.com