During a press conference today, Mr Antonio Tajani, European Commission Vice-President for Transport Policy, announced the official start of operations for EGNOS, the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The EGNOS ‘Open Service’ is now available.
This is a major milestone for the project: its primary service is now available to all users equipped with EGNOS-compatible receivers. Most mass-market satellite navigation receivers being sold today are ready for EGNOS.
EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system that improves the accuracy of satellite navigation signals over Europe. The system consists of transponders aboard three geostationary satellites over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Europe, linked to a network of about 40 ground stations and four control centres.
The EGNOS ground stations receive signals sent out by the US GPS satellites. Information on the accuracy and reliability of these signals is relayed to users via the geostationary satellite transponders. This allows them to determine their position to within two metres, compared with about 20 metres for GPS alone. The Open Service is provided free of charge.
EGNOS is the first pan-European navigation satellite system. It was developed as a joint project by ESA, the European Commission (EC) and Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation.
ESA had overall responsibility for the design and development of the EGNOS system and placed a contract with a consortium led Thales Alenia Space, France, to develop the system. After completing development, the EGNOS system was handed over to the EC on 1 April.
EC now owns and manages the EGNOS system. ESA is the design and procurement agent through a delegation agreement with the EC.
The European Satellite Services Provider, ESSP SaS, founded by seven air navigation services providers and based in Toulouse, France, manages EGNOS operations. A contract between the EC and ESSP SaS was signed on 30 September. The contract provides for the management of EGNOS operations and the maintenance of the system until the end of 2013.
from http://www.esa.int/esaNA/SEM2HGF280G_egnos_0.html
yeah i followed this story a bit, not sure if the SIRF chips will support EGNOS. I read somewhwere they will be able to interface will GPS systems, i might be wrong
Related
Does anyone know if any Ireland (Eire) maps exist for TomTom Navigator 5?
An extract from http://www.lookintoireland.com/gps.htm kind of says it all really.
"A GPS navigation system is of limited use in Ireland because of the appalling quality and incomplete state of the digital maps provided.
The Irish national road map detail is typically limited to some of the national primary and secondary roads ("N" roads), a limited subset of regional roads ("R" routes), few if any other routes ("C" routes) and little or no motorway detail.
While the national mapping agencies in most other European countries provide 100% coverage of every pathway, street, road, and highway, allowing door to door navigation down to the house number, Irish GPS maps typically only provide street level map detail for a handful of Irish cities and towns. Many / most scenic / rural routes are missing.
Why this sad state of affairs one might ask? In utility industries such as phone and electricity, one typically finds a state or former state owned incumbent and a number of private sector competitors. The private sector competitors rely on regulations which require the incumbent to open up its distribution network of cables so that they can deliver competing telephone and electricity services to anyone who wants them. This eliminates the requirement for each competitor to create their own network of cables running to each home and business in a country which would be totally uneconomic and stupid.
There are no regulations requiring the state owned Irish Mapping Agency (Ordnance Survey Ireland) to license their map databases to GPS map producers at an economic price. As a result, private sector GPS mappers have had to create their own map databases of Ireland which is a huge task in a country with about 100,000 km of roads to cover to do the job properly. Their coverage is half baked as a result and any GPS maps of Ireland we have seen leave much to be desired. Instead of re-inventing the wheel creating their own maps, GPS mappers should be able to license the complete data from OSI and add value to it to create their own distinct products."
Sorry....
http://www.tra.gov.eg/english/News_NewsDetails.asp?PID=36&ID=155
...... \NTRA News \
NTRA Issues GPS Related Decisions
The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Tarek Kamel.
NTRA Executive Director Dr. Amr Badawy said the decisions allow the import of cars equipped with GPS and navigation programs. NTRA, he added, informed the Customs Authority to act accordingly.
The new rules also permit the import of GPS-enabled mobile phones, computers and other devices with civilian applications provided that NTRA authorizes the type of machines based on its criteria and procedures.
Meanwhile, Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) services can only be authorized by NTRA according to specific regulations and in coordination with the concerned security authorities. AVL systems are currently tested in trains and ambulances.
The detailed measures of the decisions will be shortly announced on the NTRA website, Dr. Badawy concluded.
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