China to strengthen its own GPS system

China's homegrown Beidou system is ready to compete with GPS.

After being put into commercial use late last year, the system has improved its positioning accuracy to five to seven meters in ASEAN countries and parts of China, and ten meters elsewhere in the Asia Pacific region. An industry around Beidou Navigation is taking shape, with the technologies being applied to wider civilian use --- transport, fishing, weather forecasting, disaster relief and more.

Beidou is also the first system in the world to transmit signals through two frequencies for civilian use.

"Two frequencies promise greater precision in positioning and navigation. In the future, the system could be used in agriculture, earthquake detection to generate more benefits. In the meantime we also released a performance standard to promise greater accuracy and reliability by the system," said Ran Chengqi, Spokesman of Beidou Navigation Satellite System.

The Beidou satellite navigation system is already in extensive use in transport. About 80 percent of passenger and tour buses, heavy duty trucks and trailers use the system.

The system also offers navigation for marine fisheries and helps fishermen at sea keep in touch with their families with its short messaging services.

Ran says Beidou is also compatible with the US's GPS, Europe's Galileo, and Russia's Glonass satellites.

China will continue to provide a reliable service to the world.

"China's Beidou system is following a three-step strategy. Last year, we finished the second step and put into use a system covering the Asia Pacific region. The third step is a system with better capability to cover the globe. By the end of next year we will launch a new generation of Beidou satellites with a longer life span, and begin completing the constellation for a global system. In six to eight years, we will be able to provide positioning accuracy of about 2.5 meters," said Ran.

As part of Beidou's global outreach, Thailand will become the first country outside China to use it early next year.

One year after being put into service, China's Beidou satellite navigation system has reported stable and reliable performance. The system is on track to play a bigger role in the coming years, as China moves toward its goal to develop a global system with 35 satellites by 2020.