Europe presses ahead on sat-nav
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EU transport ministers agree to deploy the multi-billion-euro Galileo satellite navigation system for operations starting from 2008.
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Britain's first official road signs to  warn drivers about the dangers of trusting their satellite  navigation devices (satnavs) were introduced on Tuesday in a  Welsh village.
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Manufacturers of satellite navigation  devices are loading up their gadgets with features from audio  sightseeing guides to three-dimensional city views as they seek  to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.
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Demand for software and IT services will continue to grow steadily in Europe this year, but sluggish performance in the telecommunications sector will dampen the reasons to celebrate, according to a forecast released Thursday ahead of the Cebit trade show.
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Both companies are ready to launch their own navigation services--and the devices that work with them.
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Already, big American-style four-by-fours  are here. Soon, the roads of Europe will be dotted with smaller  and medium-sized versions of the sports utility vehicle (SUV),  one of the fastest-growing car segments.
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Music will continue its reign as the prime mover of European gadgets, according to Jupiter Research. A survey of 5,000 consumers from Britain, Germany, France, Sweden, Spain and Italy, revealed that devices
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Software 'streamlined' Nokia has updated its free satnav application, Nokia Maps, rolling in a range of tweaks designed, the Finnish phone giant claimed, to "streamline" the user experience. It's also integrating the software into its Ovi online portal.â¦
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European Union ministers met Friday to consider whether to switch to full public funding for the problem-plagued Galileo satellite navigation system after a consortium of eight companies, charged with building the project, failed to make headway.
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Now is the time for drivers to start taking it easy. The U.S. Army Europe and Installation Management Agency-Europe are teaming up to provide comprehensive driving tips with a Winter Safety Campaign, which runs ...
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A contract is signed that will lead to the building of the first four spacecraft in Europe's multi-billion-euro satellite-navigation network.
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(InfoWorld) - Satellite navigation boxes using the GPS (global positioning system) are no longer the preserve of luxury car owners in Europe. Now you see them in the humblest vehicles on the Continent's highways. That's part of the reason why the European Commission Wednesday proposed taking on the entire â¬3.4 billion ($4.7 billion) cost of creatingÂ Galileo, Europe's answer to GPS, which is based in the U.S. "Do consumers really want this product? To answer that you must ask why consumers like GPS so much," said transport commissioner Jacques Barrot at a press conference Wednesday. "Consumers are answering the question by buying more and more GPSes," he said. "Galileo will make money, and with the E.U. as its owner, it will generate income for the E.U. budget." Barrot's confidence wasn't shared earlier this year byÂ the companies picked to share the cost and benefitsÂ of building the 30-strong constellation of satellites. Unsure of the costs and unconvinced of Galileo's eventual commercial potential, theÂ companies dragged their feetÂ to a point in June where the Commission abandoned the partnership with the private sector. Under the original plan, public money was supposed to pay for the first four satellites and then the private consortium of companies building the satellites were to pay for two-thirds of the 26 remaining satellites. This amounted to a private sector cost of â¬2.4 billion. The companies -- AENA, Alcatel-Lucent, EADS, Finmeccanica, Hispasat, Inmarsat, TeleOp, and Thales -- were to recoup their investment costs by then operating the satellites and collecting fees once they were in operation. Barrot said Wednesday that the Commission wants the â¬2.4 billion to be paid for out of European Union funds. The E.U. has already committed â¬1 billion to the project. He said that he initially wanted the 27 member states of the E.U. to fill the funding gap through payments directly to the European Space Agency (ESA). But as 10 countries in the E.U. aren't members of the ESA this was dismissed, leaving the E.U. budget as the only possibility for ensuring that the project is financed. With the E.U. as the sole owner of Galileo, it will still need companies from a variety of industries to build the system's infrastructure, Barrot said. Astrium (EADS group) and Thales Alenia Space (Thales and Finmeccanica groups) approached the ESA for some of this work recently, the commissioner said. "Galileo is extremely important for the strategic autonomy of Europe. We can't let this opportunity to manage the know-how in this advanced technology pass," Barrot said. Transportation ministers of the E.U. member states will meet in Luxembourg on Oct. 2 to debate the Commission's proposal. Countries with most to gain from the project include France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. They are believed to support the Commission. However, others including the U.K. and the Netherlands, remain to be convinced that there is a real need for a European GPS. Separately, U.S. president George W. Bush said in a statement issued by the U.S. mission to the E.U. Wednesday, that he will stop the GPS signal from being interrupted or degraded by military purposes. One of the main justifications for launching Galileo was that GPS is ultimately at the mercy of the U.S. Department of Defense, and could be jammed for strategic reasons, potentially endangering private users' lives. Galileo is intended to be purely for civilian use. However, the U.S. recently has taken steps to assure GPS users that they can count on the system. "President George W. Bush has accepted a recommendation to end procurement of Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites that have the capability to intentionally degrade the accuracy of civil signals," the White House press secretary said in a statement Tuesday. Although the U.S. stopped the intentional degradation of GPS satellite signals in May 2000, this new action will result in the removal of "Selective Availability" capabilities, thereby eliminating a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that has been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide. This decision reflects the nation's commitment to GPS users that this free global utility can be counted on to support peaceful civil activities around the world, the statement said.
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Asia is set to overtake Europe's early lead in adopting mobile television broadcasting.
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Asia is set to overtake Europe&#39;s  early lead in adopting mobile television broadcasting as Europe  struggles to find available airwaves for broadcasts, industry  executives at an Asian trade fair said this week.
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(InfoWorld) - South Korea has made good on a promise to cooperate with the European Union on the latter'sÂ Galileo satellite navigation system. The two signed an agreement in Helsinki Monday that opens the door to South Korea's active participation in the program. The Asian nation could work with the EU on several areas including scientific research and training, industrial cooperation, trade and market development, standards, certification, and regulatory measures, the two parties said in a statement. Galileo is a EU-backed satellite navigation system that will provide a higher grade of service than the U.S. government's GPS (global positioning system). The EU has developed the system for commercial applications, unlike GPS which was developed primarily for military applications and doesn't come with any guarantee of continued availability for civilian use. Galileo will transmit signals that are compatible with GPS. A number of non-EU nations have signed on to the program. Cooperation agreements have been concluded with China, Israel, the U.S., Ukraine, India, and Morocco and others are in preparation, the EC said in June. Â
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PARIS -- If you have planetary vision, want to be on the cutting edge and don't get bored easily, the European Space Agency may be looking for you.
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Farmers won't miss â¬2.2bn, say officials The European Union (EU) central bureaucracy has today announced its plan to save Galileo, the troubled European sat nav project. Brussels officials believe that no additional taxpayer cash would be required on top of existing EU plans, saying that funds could be reassigned from other areas.â¦