Deal reached in Galileo, GPS row

[stark]

From the "AUSTRALIAN" on-line. Don't ask me what it means in terms of 'user-pay'

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...E29098,00.html



Deal reached in Galileo, GPS row
From AFP
June 23, 2004
THE United States and the European Union have reached a final accord on resolving a transatlantic row over rival satellite positioning systems and will seal the deal at the US-EU summit this week in Ireland, officials from both sides said Monday.

The agreement, reached after months of intense negotiations, builds on a framework deal reached by the two sides in February in Brussels to ensure compatibility and non-interference between the US Global Positioning System and Europe's Galileo project, the officials said.
"We have reached completion of a GPS-Galileo cooperation agreement," a US State Department official said, calling the deal a "landmark" accord that would reap "profound benefits" for both the United States and Europe in the highly competitive satellite positioning market.
The official, who spoke with two other US officials and an official from the European Commission, said the deal would be formally signed Saturday at the US-EU summit in Dromoland Castle in Ireland by US Secretary of State Colin Powell and EU commissioner Loyola de Palacio.
Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, will also sign the agreement, the official said.
The February outline had resolved all but "legal and procedural" details which were finally hammered out over this past weekend, the officials said on condition of anonymity.
"This is excellent news for both sides," the European Commission official said.
The official noted the burgeoning market for satellite positioning systems, which doubled from 10 billion euros in 2002 to 20 billion euros in 2003.
The United States has been watching the development of Galileo warily for the past two years, fearing it could compromise US and NATO military operations which rely on GPS for navigation and combatant location and might interfere with a classified Pentagon positioning system known as M-Code.
At one point, Washington suggested the Galileo was an unnecessary rival to GPS that merely duplicated the US system.
Despite the US reservations, Europe forged ahead with the project, which is expected to create some 150,000 jobs, and Galileo is set to be operational by 2008 with 30 satellites encircling the globe in medium orbit.
Late last year, the Europeans agreed to modify the modulation of Galileo signals intended for government use so they would not disrupt encrypted GPS signals to be used by the US military and NATO.
Then in January, the two sides said they were closer to reaching a deal on the co-existence of the two systems after the United States offeried to share its expertise in setting up a satellite navigation system and adopt the European's signal structure if it did not interfere with GPS.
Under the terms of the agreement, the two sides agreed on key points including:
- a common signal structure for so-called "open" services, and a suitable signal structure for the Galileo Public Regulated Service.
- a process allowing improvements, either jointly or individually, of the baseline signal structures in order to further improve performances.
- confirmation of interoperable time and standards to facilitate the joint use of GPS and Galileo.
AFP

[Kerry]

It wasn't a row just that Galileo wanted to plant their PRS service smack bang in the middle of the GPS M-Code. Really the U.S was a little lacking with GPS as somebody forgot to register the frequency, not good and really at one point in time it was possible that GPS could be compromised due to this little "oversight", especially considering that with Glonass freq's there weren't too much room left for Galileo.

Jam one then the lot would be jammed and considering Galileo carries no military capabilities, the NATO countries (including some EU countries) actually rely on the capabilities of NAVSTAR and will continue to do so even when (or is that IF) Galileo becomes operational.

like the "forged ahead" comments as it's taken them so long to work out/decide/fight who was going to pay what that somebody suggested their new motto should be "Better late than never"

So where is/does all this "user-pay" talk come from ???

Cheers, Kerry.