Pocket GPS World - SatNavs | GPS | Speed Cameras - Navstar Announce Fee Structure for GPS Data To Thwart Galileo Plans

Hot on the heels of the news released earlier this year that the European GPS Constellation Galileo was to be a subscription service when it goes live in 2006, Gen L. Afpriolo, the US Navstar GPS constellation boss, has today announced that they plan to migrate to a subscription model from March 31st 2005.

In response to heavy operating costs and the need to increase the speed at which the ageing system's satellites are replaced it was decided that the US DoD could no longer fund the service outright and as the number of non defence users had increased this was the obvious solution.

It used to be the cause of much hilarity when potential GPS users enquired of the service costs but as the old adage goes, "nothing is free in this world" and so it seems it is the end of an era for the until now free GPS service.

The fee structure is to be announced 30 Feb 2005.

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