Europe’s EGNOS free satellite navigation system now operational

European Commission vice-president for Transport Policy, Antonio Tajani, has announced the official start of operations for EGNOS - the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service. The EGNOS ‘Open Service’ is now available. This is a major milestone for the project, as its primary service is now available to all users equipped with EGNOS-compatible receivers. Most mass-market satellite navigation receivers being sold today are ready for the EGNOS system.

EGNOS is a satellite-based augmentation system that improves the accuracy of satellite navigation signals over Europe. The system consists of transponders aboard three geostationary satellites over the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Europe, linked to a network of about 40 ground stations and four control centers. The EGNOS ground stations receive signals sent out by the US GPS satellites. Information on the accuracy and reliability of these signals is relayed to users via the geostationary satellite transponders. This allows them to determine their position to within two meters, compared with 17 meters for GPS alone. The Open Service is provided free of charge.

EGNOS is the first pan-European navigation satellite system. It was developed as a joint project by the ESA (European Space Agency), the European Commission (EC) and Eurocontrol (European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation). It paves the way for the better known US$5.8 billion Galileo project, a European satellite system, which will rival GPS and could be up and running in 2014. The EGNOS system will allow new applications for road users in areas such as automatic tolling, congestion charging and pay-per-use car insurance.
 

2 October 2009