Galileo and GPS systems to work together

The UK government has published the agreement between it and fellow European governments, and the USA, over the promotion, provision and use of the Galileo and GPS systems.

After many years of wrangling, the Galileo project was finally given the go-ahead by the European Union back in December 2007. Galileo is intended to be an independent alternative to America’s GPS. As recently as the year 2000, the US only provided limited access to GPS to the general public.

Both the United States and the EU signed an agreement way back in June 2004 that GPS and Galileo signals would be interoperable, but it has taken several years for the agreement to be approved by member states. www.techworld.com

ESP SAS formed

ESSP SAS has been recently formed in Rome with objective to become the certified service provider for EGNOS. The Headquarters will be in Toulouse having two units: the Service Provision unit in Madrid and Operations in Toulouse. The negotiations between the European Commission and the EOIG experts have reached a conclusion on the EGNOS Agreement and foresee to initial the Agreement in the coming weeks.michel. calvet@aviation-civile.gouv.fr

China to investigate Google for illegal maps

China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Google and Sohu in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity. According to vice head, State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, authorities hope to get rid of online maps that wrongly depict China’s borders or that reveal military secrets. The government began the investigation into the problematic maps in April and will continue it until the end of the year. Min cited five areas of concern – Taiwan, the Spratlys and Paracels island chains in the South China Sea and the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea. http://afp.google.com/

Canalys surveys Taiwanese and Indian consumers about navigation and LBS

Market research firm Canalys highlighted a recent consumer survey in Taiwan for GPS navigation and LBS on mobile phones and PNDs. The survey found more than 80% of Taiwanese being familiar with what satellite navigation could do. With 60%, the idea of searching for directions on the web and printing them out was either the first or second most common method used to plan a route when travelling to a new place for the first time. http://gpsbusinessnews.com

RMSI ranked the ‘Best Workplace’ across all industries in India

RMSI has been ranked first in the Top 25 Great Places to Work in India by a study conducted by the Great Place to Work® Institute, US, along with The Economic Times, a financial daily in India. RMSI provides geospatial services, consulting to application development to spatial analysis and modeling to remote sensing and data conversion. www.rmsi.com

Second Galileo test satellite launched successfully

Giove-B, the second test satellite for Galileo, was launched aboard a Russian rocket departing from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The European Space Agency confirmed that the two solar panels powering the satellite had deployed without incident and were fully. Giove-B will start In-Orbit Validation of the signal configuration and carry out tests of high precision signal ranging. On board the satellite is an extremely accurate atomic clock based on a MASER (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and two rubidium atomic clocks. http://www.heise-online.co.uk

India’s leap into space

On April 28, 2008, ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C9, successfully launched the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT- 2A, the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and eight nanosatellites for international customers into a 637 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). PSLV-C9 in its ‘core alone’ configuration launched ten satellites with a total weight of about 820 kg.

Industrial GNSS market to Hit $240B by 2013

According to ABI Research, industrial applications such as network timing, land surveying, and machine control are quickly gaining momentum. It forecasts that by 2013 GNSS end-user devices and systems will generate yearly revenues of $240 billion. However, innovative workaround solutions based on the post-processing of the GPS signal are being developed, as is the use of assisted-GPS technology to provide location and satellite data to connected devices for faster fixes and better coverage http://www.abiresearch.com

Geospatial data to go online with Brunei Spatial Data Infrastructure launch

BSDI is the technology, standards, access system and protocols necessary to harmonise all of the Sultanate’s geospatial databases and make them available on the internet. It is facilitated by the Ministry of Development and led by the Department of Survey in partnership with the Land and Town and Country Planning. BSDI will publish base layers of geographic data such as elevations, transportation systems and water bodies that provide context and reference information for Brunei Darussalam. http://www.brunei-online.com

More than 100 million users of mobile LBS in Europe by 2012
According to Berg Insight, more than 100 million mobile subscribers in Europe will use LBS by 2012. Mapping, navigation and search are believed to become the top applications, followed by social networking and tracking. johan.fagerberg@berginsight.com