Pakistan signs up for China's GPS rival

[Edevelop]

China’s home-grown sat-nav system Beidou (BDS) is expected to add yet another customer after Pakistan signed up to host ground stations for the service.

Pakistan will follow Thailand, Laos and Brunei in becoming a Beidou customer later this month, according to China Daily.

Huang Lei, international business director of Beijing BDStar Navigation, told the paper that the construction of continuously operating reference stations (CORS), which collect and transmit satellite data, would help to increase Beidou’s accuracy in Pakistan.

With the number of Beidou satellites orbiting the earth now at 16, that accuracy is fine for the Asia Pacific region, but China will need to send up as many again to provide a satisfactory service worldwide.

The plan is to spend in the region of 40 billion yuan ($US6.4 billion) over the next few years to make that a reality by 2020.

The Chinese government has already weighed in to spur BDS take-up domestically, mandating its use in several classes of transport earlier this year.

In addition, support for BDS is already being engineered into mobile devices, although alongside, rather than in preference for alternatives GPS, Europe’s Galileo and the Russian GLONASS system.

As with most of China’s ICT plans, the idea here is to reduce the nation’s dependence on Western technologies - in this case the US-led GPS, because satellite navigation is of particular military significance in the event of a conflict.

Pakistan signs up for China's GPS rival ? The Register

 

[Edevelop]

Pakistan adopts Chinese rival GPS satellite system

Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's domestic satellite navigation system, launched as a rival to the US global positioning system, a report said Saturday.

BEIJING: Pakistan is set to become the fifth Asian country to use China's domestic satellite navigation system which was launched as a rival to the US global positioning system (GPS), a report said Saturday.

The Beidou, or Compass, system started providing services to civilians in the region in December and is expected to provide global coverage by 2020. It also has military applications.

Thailand, China, Laos and Brunei already use the Chinese system, which currently consists of 16 operational satellites, with 30 more due to join the system, according to English-language China Daily.

Huang Lei, international business director of BDStar Navigation, which promotes Beidou, told the newspaper the company would build a network of stations in Pakistan to enhance the location accuracy of Beidou.

He said building the network would cost tens of millions of dollars.

American website Defensenews.com reported early May that Pakistani military experts were in favour of using the Chinese system, even though the availability of the signal could not be guaranteed in case of conflict.

But according to one of them, Pakistan cannot place its trust in the United States.

"Pakistan's armed forces cannot rely on US GPS because of its questionable availability during a conflict that has overtones of nuclear escalation," former Pakistan Air Force pilot Kaiser Tufail told the site.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang travels next week to Pakistan, a long-time ally, after a visit to India.

Pakistan adopts Chinese rival GPS satellite system - Channel NewsAsia

 

[Hyperion]

@cb4 yara change the title, it's misleading, sounds like Pakistan is going against China's GPS system.

Apt heading: "Pakistan signs up for China's Compass, rival of US owned GPS"

 

[Edevelop]

@cb4 yara change the title, it's misleading, sounds like Pakistan is going against China's GPS system.

Apt heading: "Pakistan signs up for China's Compass, rival of US owned GPS"

i quicky copy pasted from link i gave. Actually i didn't know there was a similar thread running.
@mods please close this thread. Thanks