US, EU to Have Common Sat Nav Signal Design

By the Betanews Staff | Published July 30, 2007, 5:29 PM

The European Union and the United States have agreed on a common signal design for their respective satellite navigation systems, representatives said Monday. The US' GPS system has been operational for several years now, while the EU's Galileo system is still in development.

By agreeing on a common signal design, it will pave the way for receivers to easily incorporate both navigation systems into a single design, resulting in better location-finding. "We are pleased by the adoption of this key improvement to the common civil signal design," U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Reno Harnish said. "The U.S.-EU collaboration that produced this innovation and led to its joint adoption reflects the strong working relationships that we have developed on GPS and Galileo."

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"The US' GPS system has been operational for several years now"

I think I'd call 12-13 years (depending on when you consider the modern GPS system fully functional) as more than "several years". Seems like an arbitrary measure of time was just thrown out there without any research. You can do better than that. ;)

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This sounds good, but what happens if there is a clash in information between the two systems?

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I assume the GPS Receiver will only receive signals that it was design for. Once we're set up on one signal, then it won't be a problem.

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