Around the world, governments, soldiers and civilians have come to rely on the Global Positioning System for all sorts of navigational uses
Published:
16 August 2003 y., Saturday
Around the world, governments, soldiers and civilians have come to rely on the Global Positioning System for all sorts of navigational uses. But the users rely on nearly 30 satellites operated by the U.S. Defense Department. As GPS becomes a part of everyday life, there is growing concern about this dependence on a U.S. government system.
There is no place in the world where the Global Positioning System is so heavily used as Japan. Millions of drivers depend on dashboard GPS systems to guide them, and about four million cellular phones in Japan are equipped with GPS receivers.
In much of the world, GPS satellite signals are used to track trucking and shipping fleets, airliners and trains.
Worldwide sales of GPS equipment are estimated to be worth $16.5 billion this year, and the amount is expected to double by 2006. Japanese manufacturers enjoy a substantial share of that market. But many people around the world worry about relying on the GPS system, which the U.S. military owns. They fear the United States might begin to charge for using the system, or make the signal less accurate or cut it off entirely in time of war. That could cause huge problems for airline traffic and shipping.
The only alternative now is a Russian military network, which also could be cut off.
Šaltinis:
voanews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
Software company announced new structure_ of it_s business.
more »
Looking to stave off aggressive competition from rivals such as Yahoo and Microsoft, search technology powerhouse Google has started testing a personalized Web search feature
more »
search.lt presents newest links
more »
Internet searching is a hot technology business, but you wouldn't know it from looking at Microsoft
more »
Lindows.com intends to use a US Department of Commerce programme to have Microsoft's trademarks of Windows invalidated worldwide
more »
Why have two or more screens when you can make do with just one?
more »
The future looks bright for third generation mobiles, according to the boss of phone maker Sony Ericsson
more »
Visa has already distributed millions of so-called contactless credit cards cards that can be read by simply waving them in front of small machines
more »
It's got everything from a toothpick to a bottle opener and screw driver
more »
German company Siemens introduced its latest contribution to the mini phone rage: the PenPhone
more »
Kunitake Ando, President of Sony, unveils the Japanese company's contribution to artificial intelligence: a dancing robot
more »