CEOs review the progress of EGNOS
The CEOs of the Members of the European Geostationnary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) Operators and Infrastructure Group (EOIG) and of the ESSP met recently in Paris to review the progress of EGNOS. The fi rst in-fl ight operational trials conducted recently in Spain, Switzerland and France have confi rmed the capability of EGNOSbased approaches similar to existing precision approaches (Cat I) supported today by conventional navigation systems, in line with the high standard safety procedures of civil aviation.
The European Commission Communication is proposing to secure the fi nancing of EGNOS for the next six years with public funding. The CEOs of the EOIG urge the States to achieve a fi nancial resolution in October 2007, in order to guarantee the success of the launching phase of EGNOS as a new air navigation system. michel.
calvet@aviation-civile.gouv.fr

Airtel announces GPS navigation
Bharti Airtel, in collaboration with Sweden-based Wayfi nder Systems, launched its GPS-based Navigation Application on compatible mobile handsets. The systems is complete with detailed maps and points-of-interest of several cities across the country. It will be available on the BlackBerry 8800 and will cover information on cities including Delhi and NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai & Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, and Chandigarh. www.techtree.com

Leica GMX902 GG and Leica ScanStation 2
The Leica GMX902 GG is a highperformance GPS + GLONASS receiver, specially developed to monitor sensitive structures such as bridges, mines or high rise buildings and crucial topographies such as land slides or volcanoes. Leica has also announced a major advance in the capabilities of pulsed (or “time-of-fl ight”) laser scanners for as-built and topographic surveys. The maximum speed for ‘ScanStation 2’ is 50,000 points/second, more than 10-times that of its ScanStation predecessor (4,000 points/second) and the highest in the industry for pulsed scanners. www.leica-geosystems.com

Galileo would be financed entirely by EU budget
The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the financing Galileo, saying all money must come from the European Union (EU) budget for the construction of the system. The parliament asked the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, to present a revised proposal for legislation on the financing of the Galileo program.
The parliament says it will oppose any solution which wouldcombine EU funding with additional inter-governmental funding. The parliament expressed concern at the possibility that the additional financing necessary to fill the gap following the failure of the public-private partnership could be agreed on an inter-governmental basis.
The parliament also believed that if the public sector assumes the complete financing of the project, this factor should be taken into account in a future revised concession contract, especially as regards the reimbursement mechanism for public financial contributions and the prices of services.
Transport ministers from all 27 member states of the EU agreed earlier this month to build Galileo by public funding. But they failed to agree on where the funds should come from. The European Commission had to recommend entire public funding for the construction phase of Galileo in May as infighting in the eight-company consortium, which was picked to both build and manage Galileo, has put the completion date in doubt. http://english.people.com.cn

Real Time Traffic GPS Navigation Singapore
The first “Real Time Traffic GPS Navigation” beta solution is launched by MapKing in Singapore. It runs on Windows Mobile 5/6 Pocket PC phone devices equipped with 3G or GPRS wireless connection. Streamed from the intelligent transport system of Land Transport Authority, Singapore, Its real time traffic server dispatches traffic speed data to each device connected wirelessly on the road. At present, the data is updated every 5 minutes and the first generation covers highways and major roads. www.mapking.com

Use of geographical data promoted in Japan by new law
Having recognized the great contribution of applications derived from data obtained through a combined use of GIS and positioning systems for a lot of valuable uses (cadastre, floods, spatial planning, statistics on old buildings, criminality rates etc.), the Japanese government decided to draft a law for the use of these data and to give guidance for orientation of future needs as well as for financial and human resources required. This will help avoid fragmentation of initiatives efficient use by different Japanese ministries. www.gmes.info

Asus launches PDA GPS phone in India
Asus launched the P535 tri-band PDA phone in India with full wireless functionality, GPS and auto-focus camera. It also offers push email, Internet access, off-site synchronization of calendar and contact information over wireless (802.11b+g) or mobile phone GPRS networks. www.pcworld.in

Leica Geosystems launches Leica GMX901 GPS antenna
Leica Geosystems has launched Leica GMX901 GPS receiver with an integrated antenna for geodetic monitoring of sensitive structures. It streams single frequency code and phase data up to 1 Hz, providing the basis for position determination and deformation analysis.

Motorola RF switch enables location services
Motorola has announced several new enhancements to its RFS7000 RF Switch to support location services, management and security services including own and and third-party vendor services. www.motorola.com

European Union to sole-fund Galileo
Financing for Europe’s GNSS, Galileo, will come solely from the public sector, the European Commission declared, May 16, in Brussels. The public-private partnership (PPP) that had crippled the ambitious project was abandoned. EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said that the 27-nations bloc’s biggest-ever joint technological project could only reach orbit altitude if the public sector took full financial responsibility. He made the announcement as he presented three options for the bogged-down Galileo project: a complete EU takeover, partial public financing, or total elimination.
Barrot prefers to take over the project now, at an estimated public cost of about E2.4 billion in addition to the E1.5 billion already allocated in the 2007-2013 budget, and to issue a new tender to operate the system once it is built and in space by the end of 2012, according to recent forecasts. The European Space Agency would oversee construction and deployment of the satellites, though European aerospace companies would still supply technology, without assuming financial risk. EU Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen ruled out cancelling Galileo. “Galileo is from the European Commission standpoint an absolutely essential project,” he stated. “We don’t have an option of giving up on Galileo.” http://sidt.gpsworld.com