US, EU agree on GPSGalileo compatibility
The United States and the European Union (EU) have announced a formal agreement to make respective global navigation satellite systems (GNSS)-GPS and Galileocompatible with one another. The European Commission (EC) said a joint working group had overcome technical challenges to design interoperable civil signals. Experts have agreed that a multiplexed binary offset carrier (MBOC) waveform will be used on both systems instead of the binary offset carrier, or BOC (1,1) waveform, as stated in a 1984 agreement between the United States and the EU. The MBOC signal was proposed by a technical working group to examine further refi nements to the design.
www.satnews.com

ISRO to launch Israeli Satellite
ISRO is planning to launch an Israeli satellite from Sriharikota which is expected to cost approximately $15 million. Israe has opted for the Indian PSLV as it is more reliable than its own Shavit rocket and also Israel’s defence ministry has laid down new orbital requirements for TechSar which Shavit could not provide.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Chief Surveyor of Singapore is first Asian to receive coveted spatial science award
The Department of Geomatics, University of Melbourne will be presenting its annual Thornton Smith Medal for 2007 to its fi rst Asian recipient outside of Australia. Mr Soh Kheng Peng, who is chief surveyor of Singapore, Singapore Land Authority.
The Medal commemorates Jim Thornton Smith who founded the Department of Geomatics at the University of Melbourne in 1949 and was instrumental in the formulation and introduction of the Bachelor of Surveying degree in 1948. The Medal is awarded to a graduate from the Department of Geomatics who has shown a high level of distinction and leadership in the discipline.

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