Europe and Galileo - Frost & Sullivan Analyst Commentary
Europe and Galileo Comments by Manuel Magalhaes, Aerospace & Defence Programme Manager, Frost & Sullivan Europe has finally taken the long awaited political and financial decision to launch its own satellite navigation and positioning system – the Galileo programme. Coincidentally (or not, as the case may be), this move comes at a time of growing rifts between the US – the main civil and military GPS provider - and a number of EU countries over the conflict in Iraq. Global positioning systems (GPS) play a vital role in modern day warfare. The ownership and code allocation for this system can provide its owner’s military forces with a unique targeting and navigation capability, leaving the enemy in total darkness. Several organisations and governments feared that the US would cut down the availability of GPS during this conflict (at a huge cost for both civilian and commercial services worldwide), but luckily, this did not happen. Besides military uses like smart weapons, navigation and intelligence, the Galileo programme will offer an increased capability and accuracy in civilian applications: Public safety (i.e. ambulance route navigation), recreational navigation, telecommunications, telematics (i.e. intelligent vehicle navigation), asset tracking / fleet management, "smart" agriculture, geological and mining applications, amongst other. The programme will not only encourage private sector investment in the European GPS technologies and services (i.e. software development, embedded applications, internet integration, wireless markets, mobile commerce), but it will furthermore encourage the usage and development of new services based around GPS. The Galileo programme will give Europe independence in GPS technologies and services, tripling the potential market for OEMs and service providers in the next 10 years. We expect the programme to (directly and indirectly) create around 90,000 highly qualified jobs during this timeframe and generate revenues of around EUR 8.0 billion a year as soon as 2007. The key issues that need to be addressed by EU governments, equipment suppliers and service providers are: Interoperability with the US GPS system Reuse of selected US GPS frequencies to simplify US GPS-Galileo receiver design Technical parameters (i.e. signal structure) so that GPS service is not adversely affected Open access to Galileo specifications (similar to what the US did with GPS) Access to documentation needed to build Galileo receivers Access to the European market by non-EU companies EU standards and regulations that potentially could mandate the exclusive use of Galileo Frost & Sullivan has recently finalised its analysis of the North American GPS Markets and is preparing a research project on the European GPS and Galileo Markets. This research project will look at the commercial and market implications of the Galileo, as well as highlighting economic and market drivers and discussing equipment and application market potential. Background Frost & Sullivan is an international marketing consulting company that monitors a comprehensive spectrum of high-tech markets for trends, market measurements and strategies. This ongoing research is utilised to complement a series of research publications to support industry participants with customised consulting needs. Interviews and free executive summaries are available to the press. For more information contact: Kristina Menzefricke, Public Relations Department Tel. +44 (0) 20 7343 8376 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7343 8380 kristina.menzefricke@frost.com http://frost.com http://pressroom.frost.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- If you would prefer not to receive further messages from this sender: 1. Click on the Reply button. 2. Replace the Subject field with the word REMOVE. 3. Click the Send button. You will receive one additional e-mail message confirming your removal.