Context
- The Indian government is pushing smartphone makers to enable support for its NavIC navigation system in new devices to be sold in India from next year.
About
- Indigenous technology: NavIC is an independent stand-alone navigation satellite system developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
- Reliable alternative: It acts as an alternative to the GPS navigation system of the U.S.A.
- Project Cost: It was originally approved in 2006 at a cost of $174 million.
- Operational timeline: It became operational in 2018 though missing the completion timeline of late 2011.
- A constellation of satellites: NavIC now consists of eight satellites (7 upon launch).
Functional aspects of NavIC
- Coverage: It covers the Indian mainland (primary coverage area) and a region extending up to 1,500 km beyond the mainland with plans of extension.
- Accuracy:
- Position: Aims for better than 10 meters throughout Indian landmass and 20 meters in the Indian Ocean.
- Timing: Better than 50 nanoseconds(20).
- Applications: NavIC provides two levels of service.
- The standard positioning service: Open for civilian use.
- For example- transport, map applications, timekeeping etc.
- A restricted service (encrypted): For authorized users such as the military.
- Current Usage: Limited for-
- Public vehicle and commercial vehicles tracking (NavIC based trackers)
- Emergency warning alerts to fishermen navigating into the deep sea without adequate terrestrial network connectivity
- Tracking and providing information related to natural disasters
Other global or regional navigation systems
- Global:
- Global Positioning System (GPS) of the U.S.A.
- Galileo from the European Union
- Russian GLONASS
- China’s Beidou
- Regional: QZSS covers the Asia-Oceania region, with a focus on Japan.
Enabling NavIC in smartphones
- Self-reliance: NavIC aims to remove dependence on foreign satellite systems for navigation service requirements, especially for strategic sectors.
- It will further the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat and ‘vocal for local’.
- Risk aversion: Reliance on GPS and GLONASS may not always be reliable as they are operated by the respective defense agencies.
- They might degrade or deny the services in case of emergency.
- For e.g. The U.S. denied GPS data for Kargil region to the Indian military in 1999.
- Indian control: As NavIC is an indigenous positioning system, there is no risk of the withdrawal of service in similar situations.
- Promotion of local industry: Ministries can use NavIC applications to promote local industry to develop indigenous NavIC-based solutions.
- Satellite navigation draft policy 2021 plans to expand the NavIC coverage from regional to global.
- Global precedents:
- In 2021, 94.5% of smartphones manufactured in China were Beidou supported.
- Russia mandates inclusion of GLONASS system in locally manufactured and sold smartphones
- Apple’s devices support five global and regional navigational systems like GPS, GLONASS, Beidou etc.
Smartphone companies response
- Existing support: Major mobile chipset manufacturers like Qualcomm, MediaTek and Broadcom already support NavIC across various chipset platforms.
- Widening ambit: A few recently launched mobile handsets can be enabled to receive NavIC.
- For example, the Redmi Note 9 series from Xiaomi, the Realme 6 series, the OnePlus Nord etc.
- Concerns:
- Additional costs: Xiaomi and Samsung reported higher research and production costs (hardware changes-Dual band chipsets) might cause losses in a price sensitive market like India.
- Tight time frame: Testing clearances can take more time possibly missing the 1 January 2023 deadline for making smartphones NavIC-complaint.
- Technical complexities: Mobile phone chipsets at present support L1 frequency band (used by GPS and GLONASS). NavIC is available in L5 band, making immediate compliance to it difficult.
Way Forward
- For the timely launch of NavIC compliant smartphones, ISRO can provide technical expertise and support to the mobile manufacturing companies.
- Feasibility studies should be conducted to ensure balance between NavIC compliant phones and keeping price stability intact.
- Industry sources have suggested a tentative timeline of January 2025 for supporting NavIC in domestically manufactured smartphones.
- ISRO is also planning to launch a satellite in 2024-25 to support the L1 frequency band for satellite communication and navigation etc.
Source: BS
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