The European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) has begun initial operations, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced July 28.

During the Initial Operations Phase, the responsibility for providing the EGNOS signal and data will be transferred from ESA, which developed the satellite system, to the European Satellite Services Provider (ESSP), which will be responsible for operations.

The EGNOS open service, which will be free for users and support all except safety-of-life applications, is scheduled be declared available in early 2006, once operations have been proven to be stable and robust. The ESSP intends to have the system declared available for safety-of-life applications in 2007.

EGNOS augments signals provided by the U.S. GPS satellite navigation system and Russia’s Global Orbiting Navigation Satellite System and has been under design, development and deployment since 1997.