China mounts GPS challenge with Compass

THE WEEKEND'S LAUNCH of a fourth Beidou (Big Dipper) navigation satellite by China has highlighted all the old sat nav arguments. Will the US be facing a serious challenge to its GPS system?

To date the only serious challenge to the existing Global Positioning System (GPS) run by the USA has come from Europe's Galileo project. Of which China is also already a partner.

However, it currently looks like Galileo won't be ready until 2011 at the earliest. Meanwhile China has thrown up a handful of geo-stationary Beidou satellites to give it a rudimentary navigation system that covers China and not much else.

Beidou is also reported to have an accuracy to within 10 metres which is enough for one of its major commercial applications - helping deep sea fishing boats work out where they are.

The snag is that this fourth satellite looks like the start of a Chinese plan to cover the globe by putting around 30 satellites into space.

More significantly China has also admitted that Beidou will form the basis of a more accurate system to be known as the Compass Navigation Satellite System.

Additionally there is a growing feeling that building some kind of satellite navigation system into mobile phones will become essential. It's being driven by the USA's desire to provide accurate location for its E911 emergency service.

To date the leading supplier of a GPS capability to mobile phone makers has been - Qualcomm. Particularly with its gpsOne on chip offering.

Now if Qualcomm is going to make its chips attractive to Chinese manufacturers and the Chinese market in particular, it may find itself having to provide compatibility with Compass.

Which is all fine and good but Qualcomm may have met its match. The company is renowned for protecting its IPR. And China is renowned for its secrecy. It's going to make for some interesting discussions. µ