From EGNOS to Galileo: A European vision of satellite-based radio navigation

Geographical positioning by satellite is taking on an increasingly important role in our everyday lives, as countless sectors of activity begin to rely on precise knowledge of location and time. The American GPS system has a worldwide monopoly in this domain but offers no guarantee in terms of the quality of the services that it provides. For this reason, in 1994 the European Union decided to adopt its own satellite navigation strategy. The first stage of this strategy consisted it? developing a European regional GPS signal augmentation system, known as EGNOS with the aim of improving the precision and availability Of GPS signals. EGNOS will be integrated into the second stage of Europe's satellite navigation strategy, which consists in launching a new constellation of satellites, referred to as Galileo. Galileo will be an autonomous system, thereby guaranteeing Europe's independence and sovereignty At the same time, its compatibility with the American GPS system will enable users equipped with bi-mode Galileo-GPS receivers to benefit from both systems. Thanks to new frequency bands allocated to RNSS systems, Galileo will benefit from the same rights in terms of signal definition and this will allow Galileo to provide different levels of service. The outcome will be a system offering greater precision than GPS and user guarantees in terms of quality For Europe, the issues at stake are considerable and cover numerous areas of activity: transport, agriculture, defence, search and rescue, telecommunications and construction. Galileo benefits from a considerable backing from the European Commission and Member States.