Tags: China, GPS, BeiDou,, Satellite Navigation
Publication: TheHinduBusinessLine.com
Publication Date: 03/03/2013

Launching of the 14th and 15th BeiDou navigation satellites. Image credit: Beidou.gov.cn

China has announced its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is expected to reach full-scale global coverage in 2020. The country expects BDS to provide highly accurate and reliable positioning, navigation and timing services, to compete with the United States’ Global Positioning System (GPS).

Starting in 2000, China has already launched 16 of the 35 planned satellites for BDS, and has provided licensed services for its government and military users in transport, weather forecasts, fishing, forestry, telecommunications, hydrological monitoring and mapping.

While approximately 95 percent of the navigation terminals sold in China are GPS terminals, the country aims to control 70 to 80 per cent of the now GPS-dominated domestic market in the next seven years. To compete with foreign rivals, China is adding communications functions to the BeiDou terminal: it can communicate with the ground station by sending and receiving short messages, 120 Chinese characters in each.

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