GPS Rhapsody: US and EU to Share Civil GPS Standard, Nobody Really Cares

Published: July 30, 2007, 7:04 pm

Tags: agreement, eu, galileo, galileo open service, gps, gps iiia, gps rhapsody, mboc, navstar, queen, us

Today, the United States and the European Union have decided to share a common standard for their next-generation geo-positioning systems, the EU's Galileo Open Service and the US's GPS IIIA. Called MBOC, it will allow companies to develop one type of receiver compatible with both networks. Will this affect your life today? In a word: no. The Galileo program means nothing but a bunch of protocols and plans at this point, with eurocrats still scrambling to fix the mess that eight euro companies left behind them. At this point, there's only one Galileo test satellite in orbit. The other one is grounded for technical reasons and the German Transport Minister was recently quoted saying "Galileo is in a dead-end street." It doesn't matter, because according to the European Commission, the agreement "underscores Europe's commitment to interoperability between Galileo and GPS and to managing the Galileo programme in an innovative partnership with the US." Translated from euro-yaddayadda:

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