Get ready for better comms as Europe is about to get its own GPS system
After years of borrowing from the US military Europe will soon have its own satellite navigation system
Each time you switch on a TomTom, Garmin or Magellan sat-nav in your car to get from A to B, you're depending wholly on US-owned and operated technology. Portable navigation devices like these and, increasingly, smartphones, tablets and other devices rely solely on a network of 24 Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites orbiting over 12,000 miles above us.
Their orbits are specially configured so that at any one time there should be at least four (but usually six or seven) that can pick you out wherever you may be on the planet's surface. Together they're able to calculate almost exactly where you are on the planet to an error margin of just 10 metres. Europe needs more accuracy – and more ownership.
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