Competing EU and US systems will send common open signal
After several years of negotiations the European Union and the USA have resolved the remaining legal and procedural differences between their two competing satellite navigation systems.
European Commission and US teams are expected to sign a formal compatibility agreement between the US global positioning system (GPS) and Europe's Galileo at a EU-US summit meeting early this week.
The deal marks the end of a lengthy process to ensure civil compatibility without jeopardising military signal security, and builds on a February agreement to align the signal modulation standard for both systems' open services. At the same time, the agreement paves the way for technical advances in the Galileo system, designed to compete with the GPS-3 system upgrades planned to become operational in 2012.
The joint EC/European Space Agency-funded project team for the 30-satellite Galileo constellation is stepping up efforts to secure private sector participation.
"We are in a very important phase of validation and development, which is why it was important to reach an agreement with the USA to co-exist because we will be moving to the deployment phase soon," the EC says. The first Galileo test satellite is scheduled for launch in October 2005, and the system is estimated to be up and running by 2008.
The EC estimates the global market for satellite navigation doubled between 2002 and 2003, growing from €10 billion ($12 billion) to €20 billion, and is "set to skyrocket" by 2020.
Besides being crucial to securing private sector financing, the timing of the final co-operative agreement is key to ensuring that signals are compatible between GPS and Galileo. GPS-3 and Galileo satellites will transmit a common open signal from both constellations of satellites, with tests already having been performed to determine that the two are interoperable. "We will avoid the VHS versus Betamax [video recorder] standard war in this field. We won't have to hold off on waiting to see what GPS-3 is like before investing in this venture," says a US official.
REBECCA RAYKO / WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
