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Galileo - Midterm Review


Article by: Darren Griffin
Date: 19 Jan 2011

pocketgpsworld.comMore Galileo news. Following our news of the wikileaks cable leak earlier this week (see here), OHB CEO Berry Smutny was removed from his his post. And yesterday the European Commission presented their midterm review of the European satellite navigation programme Galileo.

With the in-orbit testing of the two experimental satellites underway and the building of the first four operational satellites nearing completion the EC expect initial navigational services will commence in 2014.

Despite initial objections by the US and a myriad of other obstacles, the technical achievements have been impressive and the UK has lead the way in the design and construction of the new satellites. Each one will be more technically advanced, more accurate and far cheaper to build and launch than those of its US rival, Navstar.

The BBC were leading today with a news item claiming additional costs of €1.9 billion. These are not additional, and unforeseen, as claimed but are instead part of the anticipated costs necessary to complete the satellite constellation, which will, when finished, number 30 satellites in total.

The EU estimates that €800 billion of Europe's GDP currently relies on satellite navigation and the global market for satnav applications, growing at 30% in recent years could be worth €240 billion by 2020.

Budget costs for Galileo consist of €3.4 billion financed by the EU for work until 2013 (which includes the manufacture and launch of the first 18 satellites) and the additional, forecast €1.9 billion required to complete the infrastructure and to bring all 30 satellites into service.

Galileo will bring faster, more accurate positioning, with accuracy of one metre as well as separate, encrypted services that will be made available to critical transport and emergency service users.

For more information on Galileo see here.

Comments
Posted by Rowan29a on Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:37 pm Reply with quote

You can bet your bottom Euro that charges for personal use will be in the pipeline....


Mike -
TomTom 750 Live
iPhone 5 16GB, Kavaj "Dallas" case

 
Posted by Darren on Wed Jan 19, 2011 3:53 pm Reply with quote

Rowan29a Wrote:
You can bet your bottom Euro that charges for personal use will be in the pipeline....

They have explicitly stated that personal use and access to the public data will always be free. Only the various other services, with built-in protection and other benefits, will be charged.

At the end of the day, with Navstar available they would have great difficulty selling Galileo service to the general user anyway. They can only justify a fee where the service offers something that Navstar doesn't.

So commercial use in transport, aviation etc will have an access fee.


Darren Griffin

 
Posted by legalspeed on Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:39 pm Reply with quote

Could it be that the new income streams for the various cash strapped European governments from road pricing cannot be introduced using a gps system that is owned by someone else? (gps by the Americans, glonass by the Russians). However, once the European galileo system is up and running at whatever cost, then the route to road pricing is wide open. Call me a suspicious old cynic if you wish, but watch this space. regards, Legalspeed.


 
Posted by Darren on Wed Jan 19, 2011 4:41 pm Reply with quote

Nothing to stop them using the existing GPS network, but Galileo will be more accurate.

Even so, there are many technical hurdles before GPS could be reliably used for road pricing.


Darren Griffin

 
Posted by vicz on Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:11 pm Reply with quote

This is ALL abut EU wide road pricing, and has been right from its inception.


Nuvi 360T, GTM12

 
Posted by Darren on Tue Feb 01, 2011 5:52 pm Reply with quote

vicz Wrote:
This is ALL abut EU wide road pricing, and has been right from its inception.

It's not. They have gone on record to deny that, and it's a bloody expensive way to introduce road pricing.


Darren Griffin

 
Posted by Guivre46 on Tue Feb 01, 2011 7:46 pm Reply with quote

I think it is about conflict of interest. Can't expect the US to allow EU to use their satellites if EU acts in a way not inline with US interests. Suspect something like this was happening during the Falklands crisis. There is probably looming problems with global resources, border controls, and competition for trade agreements. But we'll know when it happens.


Mike R [aka Wyvern46]
Go 530T - unsupported
Go550 Live [not renewed]
Kia In-dash Tomtom

 
Posted by BigPerk on Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:52 pm Reply with quote

Exactly - I don't expect satnavs work too well in Iraq or Iran at the moment ...


David
(Navigon 70 Live, Nuvi 360)

 
Posted by M8TJT on Tue Feb 01, 2011 10:56 pm Reply with quote

Even when the Americans had SA on, the accuracy was good enough for normal navigation, and if integrated over time, would give you an accurate fix. Albeit probably not accurate enough to drop a bomb down an airshaft.


 
Posted by Darren on Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:10 am Reply with quote

M8TJT Wrote:
Even when the Americans had SA on, the accuracy was good enough for normal navigation,

Only because road nav apps use snap to nearest road.


Darren Griffin

 
Posted by CDK on Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:11 pm Reply with quote

With the EU system out of US control and hot/cold relationship between the US and the French (who will probably be in control) what's the betting that the US have smuggled a hidden master "Off" switch into the design - also with the international supply chain of such specialised equipment limited to handful of manufacturers (mainly US, Taiwan & Japan), who can trust that the equipment is not carrying an extra hidden payload that can be enabled/disabled as and when required.

Fact is stranger than fiction....


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although we hail from different lands,
we share one earth and sky and sun,
remember friends, the world is one....
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