GPS Leader Magellan Corporation Applauds Government’s End of Selective Availability
Magellan Corporation, a leading
manufacturer of Global Positioning System (GPS) products and maker of the
first hand-held GPS receiver, is celebrating the enhanced performance of its
products on this first day of full-accuracy GPS signal transmission.
This
follows President Clinton’s announcement yesterday of the U.S. government’s
removal of Selective Availability (SA), which degrades GPS signals.
As
President Clinton noted in his announcement, the result of removing SA will be
about ten times greater accuracy for public users of GPS.
With millions of hand-held GPS products in the hands of consumers, the
impact of ending Selective Availability of GPS signals is significant,
according to John Huyett, President and CEO of Magellan, headquartered in
Santa Clara, Calif.
“Our products have become more valuable and useful overnight,” said
Huyett.
“The same GPS receiver that provided accuracy within 100 meters of a
user’s location yesterday, is providing position fixes with as good as
10-meter accuracy today.
This change immediately makes GPS more accurate and
reliable, and thus more valuable to our GPS customers.”
Huyett said he expects the improved accuracy will lead to increased sales
for Magellan, especially with the launch of its new GPS device that clips onto
the Palm V(TM) connected organizer.
“We’re excited that Palm V users will
find our GPS clip-on even more valuable,” said Huyett.
“They’ll find it more
useful for daily needs like navigating to meeting locations, or as a travel
aid for finding tourist attractions.”
Jonathan Ladd, Magellan’s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Commercial
Technology, said the decision to end selective availability adds fidelity to
the GPS system without costing more.
“Prior to this decision, taxpayers were
paying for decreased accuracy.
Now, they’re getting more accuracy at no
additional cost,” said Ladd.
“The significant increase in accuracy is very
good for everyone involved in GPS.
It touches Magellan in all of our product
and technology areas, from vehicle navigation and consumer hand-held
receivers, to precision products and wireless communications.”
Ascertaining more accurate position fixes will significantly increase the
value of GPS products in all applications, whether for recreational use or
safety-of-life applications such as search and rescue operations.
Now GPS
users can more accurately find a location such as a favorite fishing hole, or
simply locate their car in a stadium parking lot.
For vehicle navigation, more accurate GPS signals means the system will
know more precisely where you are and how to guide you where you’re going.
Likewise, Magellan’s tracking products will more accurately locate vehicles
and other assets.
There’s also an advantage for users of Magellan’s higher-accuracy,
differential GPS (DGPS) products that provide sub-inch accuracy, such as those
for the aviation industry and precision industries like surveying, mapping and
agricultural machine-control.
Precision-minded DGPS users who rely on
transmissions of correction data, such as those broadcasted by the U.S. Coast
Guard’s reference stations, would normally need correction signals every three
to five seconds to obtain a high level of accuracy.
Now, the same users will
need significantly fewer transfers of data to maintain the same level of
accuracy.
“Bringing the system’s full-performance accuracy to the world is a clear
indication from our government that the U.S. is committed to providing the
best global positioning, navigation and timing on the planet,” said Huyett.
“The decision will directly affect safety-of-life applications and
telecommunications.
We anticipate this to be the first step in GPS
modernization.”
About Magellan Corporation
Magellan Corporation, headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., is a
broad-based satellite access technology company specializing in positioning,
navigation, communications and guidance products.
Magellan is a pre-public
company with a majority of stock held by Orbital Sciences Corporation
, one of the world’s largest, most diversified commercial space
products and services companies.
For more information about Magellan, visit
www.magellangps.com .
