Galileo satellite nav system to be up and running from 2014
Industry committee MEPs approved new legislation on Tuesday to ensure that Europe's two satellite navigation systems - Galileo, the European GPS system, and the EGNOS programmes for improving GPS signal quality - can be funded and operated from 2014 to 2020, European Parliament press release said.
The Commission has earmarked €7.9 billion to complete the EU's atellite navigation infrastructure over the seven-year period. MEPs call in amendments to the draft legislation for more of the new services to be offered free of charge. The Public Regulated Service, which will ensure, from 2014, that key services such as police and ambulance services continue to operate in times of crisis, must be free, they say. So must the Safety of Life Service, a European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS)programme, which will be fully available later and will make air navigation safer.
Two other Galileo services will be available from 2014: the Open Service, which will be accessible free of charge and will provide positioning, velocity and timing information, useful for example, in mapping, and the Search-and-Rescue Service, for use in emergencies such as the loss of a sailor at sea. The Commercial Service, allowing commercial applications of the technology, will be available later.
"This framework for the period 2014-2020 is of key importance since the first Galileo services will be offered in 2014 and the full operational capability will be reached by 2020", said rapporteur Marian-Jean Marinescu (EPP, RO).
Source : PortNews