NaviGadget

EU Nations Breaking US GPS Satellite Monopoly

Dec 30, 2005 gps navigation, misc news

In accordance with EU’s Gallileo global positioning system first satellite was sent to space from Kazakhstan on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

With greater accuracy for civilian uses than the American network, it will allow enhanced services such as tracing emergency calls to within a yard of their origin and helping tourists find an ATM in a strange city using a chip inserted into a cellular telephone, the officials said.

Many Europeans see political significance in the project, too: The world’s only civilian-controlled system will give Europe and its partner nations self-sufficiency from the United States, which has warned it could diminish or cut off GPS satellite coverage to countries considered enemies in times of national emergency…