HAVE plans to create a European satellite navigation system lost their way? That鈥檚 the fear after China revealed the true nature of its satellite positioning system, named Beidou, last week.
China had been working with Europe to create Galileo, a satnav system to compete with America鈥檚 GPS network. But China鈥檚 official news agency said on 2 November that Beidou will now provide a free 鈥渙pen鈥� service with 10-metre accuracy, in addition to an encrypted military service.
This could undermine the economic case for Galileo, according to a senior Galileo source, because China was expected to be a key market for commercial signal subscriptions and receivers for the service. 鈥淚f Beidou offers a free service inside China, that idea goes out of the window,鈥� he says.
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鈥淐hina will provide free satnav with 10-metre accuracy, undermining Galileo鈥�
The irony is not lost on Michael Shaw of the US satnav coordination office in Washington DC. 鈥淐hina鈥檚 behaviour towards Europe is not so different to how Europe behaved with us when GPS was the only game in town.鈥�
