EU improves GPS with sat-nav network

 

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Posted on 1 Oct 2009 at 12:14

The EU has launched a free satellite-navigation network, as it gears up for the activation of the Galileo network in 2010.

The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) will use three satellites and 40 ground stations to narrow the horizontal accuracy of GPS from around seven meters to two meters.

Among the benefits, the EU is touting improved precision for aircraft that are spraying fertilisers, and new applications such as automatic tolling and pay-per-use car insurance.

"It will make all personal navigation applications much more precise, giving birth to new possibilities like guiding aids for blind people," says the Commission.

The system was pioneered by the Commission, the European Space Agency and aviation safety authority Eurocontrol.

It paves the way for the better known Galileo project, a European satellite system which will rival GPS and could be up and running in 2014.

The $5.8 billion Galileo project, Europe's biggest single space programme, has been plagued by delays and squabbling over funding that ended only when the EU agreed to fund it from the public purse.