Third party database & technologies to drive mobile LBS
The consumer LBS market has steadily evolved over the past few years. A number of factors – including the development of third-party location databases and technologies – are poised to finally drive real LBS market growth on mobile phones. According to Frost & Sullivan, ‘North America Consumer LBS Market – The Wireless Carrier Opportunity’, estimates that carrier-generated consumer LBS revenues totalled over $480 million in 2008 and projects this figure to surpass $3.0 billion in 2013. www.frost.com

HP announces expansion of Designjet
HP has expanded its Designjet largeformat portfolio with a range of new workgroup and multifunction printers, software solutions and new media choices to address the needs of vertical segments, IT managers and production operators. The new products, solutions and large-format papers are ideal for GIS, architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) and mechanical computer aided design (MCAD) workgroups. www.hp.com

EVC named authorized reseller of DigitalGlobe products
East View Cartographic (EVC) has signed an agreement with DigitalGlobe to be an Authorized Reseller of DigitalGlobe’s high resolution commercial imagery. www.cartographic.com

Geolocation to the web
Opera Software and Skyhook Wireless to partner in bringing geolocation to the Web. With Skyhook’s Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS), any computer or mobile phone with a wireless adapter can take advantage of its positioning technology and locate a user. Users

can now simply choose to share their location with any Web site and get a range of information. www.opera.com

Norway joins Galileo project
The Norwegian government will give a boost by providing 68.9 million euros (92.5 million dollars) towards the 3.4 billion euro project. While Norway is not a member of the 27-member bloc, the

country’s economy and business minister Sylvia Brustad said it was important that Oslo took part in Galileo’s development. “The project will be of huge importance for the development of the European space industry and it is therefore important that Norwegian businesses are now able to compete,” Brustad said in a statement. In

September, the European Commission and the European Space Agency, which includes Norway as a member, shortlisted 11 European firms which are bidding for future contracts connected to Galileo. www.newsabout- space.org/story/157986254.html

RISAT – ISRO’s SAR satellite, launched
ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C12), on April 20, 2009 successfully placed two satellites – RISAT-2 and ANUSAT – in the desired orbit. RISAT-2 is a Radar Imaging Satellite with the capability to take images of the earth during day and night as well as cloudy conditions. This satellite will enhance ISRO’s capability for earth observation, especially during disaster management. ANUSAT, built by Anna University, Chennai is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University under the guidance of ISRO and will demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations. www.isro.org

EXPRESSMaps delivers detailed maps in 6 hours
Spot Image and Infoterra are launching www.express-maps.com to deliver detailed basemaps covering over three quarters of the Earth’s land surfaces. This service creates 1:50000 basemaps, which can be delivered electronically in just 6 hours. It is mainly aimed at civil protection agencies, military and humanitarian aid teams in crisis management situations. www.infoterra.fr

China launches navigation satellite
China launched Beidou-2 (or Compass- G2) – their second geostationary navigation satellite recently. The Compass constellation comprises 31 satellites – 27 MEO satellites and 4 geostationaries. BeiDou-2 is reported to have a lifespan of 8 years. The first phase of the project will provide coverage for Chinese territory – ultimately giving global cover. www.nasaspaceflight.com

Galileo and China’s Compass argue over frequencies
The Christian Science Monitor reports that China’s insistence on using the same radio frequency as Galileo may render some features of the European system unusable in the event of a crisis. China’s membership of “Galileo,” has soured to the point where the two sides are locked in a dispute over radio frequencies, as China races ahead with its own network of satellites. Without an agreement, China would be able to frustrate European military forces’ efforts to deny a future enemy crucial satnav capability. http://survapedia. com/2009/03/galileo-china-argue/

GeoEye sign reseller contracts. Beijing Earth Observation reseller in China

GeoEye, Inc. has signed agreements with several international resellers to provide high-resolution, satellite imagery and value-added products from its new GeoEye-1 Earth-imaging satellite to customers in China, Middle East, Turkey and Russia. Beijing Earth Observation, China has signed a new agreement with GeoEye to receive data from the GeoEye-1. www.geoeye.com