European players in the satellite navigation business today and their success

From INVESaTWIKI

European players in the satellite navigation business today and their success

There is apparently sometimes the perception that the European industry is at a disadvantage against its American counterparts in the satellite navigation business. This is a perception which is perhaps worthwhile to challenge. There are enough examples where European companies are equally successful in the GPS business as American companies:

• European companies were able to build the most sophisticated type of GPS receiver, capable of tracking L1 and L2 code and phase, and delivering cm-accurate positions in real-time, entirely on their own (e.g. Sercel, now part of Thales). There are also European chipset manufacturers around which do not need to rely on any American intellectual property;
• European Universities are undisputed leaders in the processing of GPS measurements. E.g. the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern has established a world-wide accepted standard in the post-processing of GPS measurements, allowing Geodesists and Geophysicists to measure movements of the earth’s tectonics with mm accuracy around the world;
• In several professional applications like surveying or GPS augmentation European companies are among the world market leaders, e.g. Thales or Leica;
• Probably most of the world’s car navigation systems are built by European companies (or Japanese companies – which are also outside USA!), utilising only some GPS intellectual property from American companies (mainly Trimble) for which less than $ 10 is today paid per unit. The rest of the systems is usually “Made in Europe”.

The conclusion is that European industry can successfully participate at each level of the satellite navigation business if it chooses to do so. [1]

References

[1] G.Dippel-Hens (GALILEAN working group report)
"GNSS business issues".