China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System has started to cover entire Pakistan

[ghazi52]

China’s Beidou Navigation Satellite System has started to cover entire Pakistan

BEIJING - Pakistan's reliance on US satellite navigation statement GPS ends as now China’s domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System has started to cover entire Pakistan.

China launched a pair of navigation satellites yesterday afternoon, moving closer to building a global network.

The 28th and 29th satellites in the domestically developed Beidou Navigation Satellite System, one of the nation’s largest space programs, were lifted atop a Long March 3B carrier rocket at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

They are the fifth and sixth in the third-generation of Beidou satellite. They will conduct in-orbit tests and then be connected with the previous four third-generation Beidou satellites, said a statement from the China Satellite Navigation Office.

In November, the first two third-generation Beidou satellites were launched at the Xichang center. In January, another two were lifted at the same center.

Beidou is the world’s fourth space-based navigation system, following GPS by the United States, GLONASS by Russia and Galileo by the European Union.

Since 2000, when the first Beidou satellite was placed in space, 33 satellites have been launched for the network. The Beidou system began providing positioning, navigation, timing and message services to civilian users in China and parts of the Asia-Pacific region in December 2012.

By the end of this year, 18 third-generation Beidou satellites would be placed into orbit and they will work with the earlier generations to cover all nations involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, the satellite office said.

The Belt and Road Initiative, a far-reaching development plan proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt, which will link China with Europe through Central and Western Asia, and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which stretches from southern China to Southeast Asia and farther to Africa. The initiative is estimated to benefit about 4.4 billion people in 65 nations, according to the government.

By now, Beidou has covered nearly 30 countries involved in the initiative, including Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia, the office noted. In 2019 and 2020, China will send six third-generation Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbits, three to inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and two to geostationary orbits.

According to plans from the satellite office, the network will be made up of 35 satellites before the end of 2020-several now in orbit will be decommissioned by then-to give Beidou global coverage

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Fantastic new finally people will have good quality uninturrupted Internet and other high end telecom services

 

[Menace2Society]

Move away from GPS military use asap.

 

[my2cents]

Good for Pakistan. Now you can say 'bye-dou' to GPS.

 

[volatile]

at least now all missiles will work free

 

[ghazi52]

GPS rival China's BeiDou navigation system starts global service


BEIJING: China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) has started to provide global service, said BDS Spokesperson Ran Chengqi on Thursday.

At a press conference of the State Council Information Office, Ran said the construction of the BDS-3 primary system has been completed.

"This signifies that BDS has officially entered the global era as the BDS expands from a regional system to a global navigation system," Ran said.

The positioning accuracy of the system has reached 10 meters globally and five meters in the Asia-Pacific region. Its velocity accuracy is 0.2 meters per second, while its timing accuracy stands at 20 nanoseconds, according to Ran.

By the end of 2018, there were a total of 33 BDS satellites operating in orbit, including 15 BDS-2 satellites and 18 BDS-3 satellites.

China plans to launch another 11 BDS-3 satellites and one BDS-2 satellite in the coming two years to form the complete global network, Ran said.

 

[ghazi52]

China’s BeiDou Navigation System Will be Able to Replace GPS in Pakistan

Pakistani military reliance on the US-owned Global Positioning System (GPS) will be reduced after the use of China’s Beidou satellite navigation system which is projected to achieve global coverage by 2020. This was the crux of background discussions between former military officials and telecom experts.

Beidou is the world’s fourth space-based navigation system, following GPS by the United States, GLONASS by Russia and Galileo by the European Union. According to experts, the satellite-based system plays a vital role in the modern world, especially during wartime.

According to reports when the Pakistani troops took positions in Kargil in 1999, one of the first things the Indian military sought was GPS data for the region. The space-based navigation system maintained by the US denied it to India.

Chinese Beidou has covered nearly 30 countries, including Pakistan, Egypt and Indonesia and will send six third-generation Beidou satellites into medium Earth orbits, three to inclined geosynchronous satellite orbits and two to geostationary orbits in 2019 and 2020.

A report prepared by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission states that China’s Beidou satellite navigation system is projected to achieve global coverage by 2020, providing position accuracies of under ten meters (one meter or less with regional augmentation) using a network of 35 satellites.

The report further states while the U.S has provided GPS signals to users worldwide since the 1980s, China has sought to field its own satellite navigation system in order to:

(i) address national security requirements by ending military reliance on GPS;

(ii) build a commercial downstream satellite navigation industry to take advantage of the quickly expanding market;

(iii) achieve domestic and international prestige by fielding one of only four such global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) yet developed, cementing China’s status as a leading space power and opening the door to international cooperation opportunities.

Beidou will likely bring enhanced prestige and diplomatic opportunities for China’s government. The system could provide Beijing with leverage to obtain more influence in several international and regional organizations that deal with global satellite navigation issues. Further, China plans to expand Beidou coverage to most of the countries covered in its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, indicating it sees the system as playing a role in its economic diplomacy efforts.

Lieutenant General(R) Talat Masood said that China is a more dependable ally of Pakistan especially in disasters like situations. Both countries want to further cement bilateral strategic relations in sensitive and security matters.

“No doubt U.S has advanced technology, but China is catching-up now which would be helpful for Pakistan as well”, said Masood, adding that Chinese satellite system would reduce Pakistan’s reliance on US-owned GPS.

A former Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman said that currently mobile phones are not Beidou-compatible and it would take some time after the global launch expected in 2020. He maintained that the Chinese satellite system could be used for military purposes at a limited scale and once mobile handsets are Beidou-compatible, the coverage would increase dramatically.

The Chinese government has set a goal that all new cars will be Beidou-guided by 2020. Domestic phone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi and OnePlus are now Beidou-compatible, although Apple did not add the Chinese system to its new line-up of iPhones.

UniStrong Science and Technology Co, a Beijing-headquartered global navigation satellite system, positioning and timing service provider, has established a regional Beidou navigation satellite system network consisting of five base stations and one processing centre in Karachi on May 21, 2014.

Pakistan has become the first foreign country to use China-based GPS system made by Beidou. While speaking to the annual China satellite navigation conference in Nanjing, Chief Scientist of UniStrong Shen Jun had stated that the first stage of Pakistan’s geographic positioning network has been completed with the network covering Karachi.

The company claimed that the GPS can provide positioning with an accuracy of up to two centimeters. However, it added that the accuracy can extend up to five millimeters after post-processing. GPS can help with urban planning, surveying and mapping environmental supervision, disaster relief efforts, and traffic monitoring