The roll-out of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is expected to provide technological services for projects under the Belt and Road (B&R) initiative and help related companies' expansion overseas, experts said, predicting a bright outlook for BDS' application in sectors including transportation and emergency situations.
The comments came after China Satellite Navigation System Committee Chairman Wang Li said at the 8th China Satellite Navigation Conference in Shanghai on Tuesday that China will launch six to eight satellites to establish a global network in the second half of this year and accomplish the launch of 18 satellites by around 2018 to serve countries along the Belt and Road route.
The B&R initiative offers a precious opportunity for BDS technology as well as related companies to expand in B&R regions, said Li Ning, a Beijing-based independent industry analyst.
"The applications of BDS, especially precision services, are mostly connected with infrastructure like highways, railways and pipelines. Considering that infrastructure projects account for a large proportion of B&R projects, BDS will provide strong technological support for the implementation of the initiative," he told the Global Times on Tuesday.
In March, geo-spatial information company Wuhan Optics Valley Beidou Holding Group announced that it would facilitate BDS' technological cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and more countries in Asia and Africa by conducting demonstration cooperation projects with Thailand and Sri Lanka, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
However, it will not be easy for BDS to be applied overseas, considering potential security worries in some countries, according to Tian Yun, head of the Information Department at the China Society of Macroeconomics Research Center.
Though BDS has been used in various sectors in China, including sewage disposal supervision, bicycle sharing and smartphones, its commercial application in countries like the Philippines, Russia or even the US will not be easy because of data transmission safety issues, he told the Global Times on Tuesday.
For countries that lack the capacity to independently develop satellite navigation systems, existing systems provide more opportunities than challenges for them, Li said.
Initiated in 1994, the BDS project has made remarkable progress. For example, the BDS and US Global Positioning System (GPS) both have a precision of 10 meters for civilian use, and BDS' accuracy can be improved to meter-level or even centimeter-level with Continuously Operating Reference Stations facilities, Li added.
Rapid progress
The domestic satellite navigation and location-based services industry saw considerable success in 2016, with the total industry value soaring 22.06 percent year-on-year to reach 211.8 billion yuan ($30.75 billion) last year, according to a white paper on development of the industry sent to the Global Times by the Global Navigation Satellite System and Location-based Services Association of China on Tuesday.
The core industry value including chips, devices and terminals has reached 80.8 billion yuan, to which BDS contributes 70 percent, it said.
In addition, an increasing number of chip manufacturers are choosing to integrate both BDS and GPS into their chips for augmented precision. A total of 510 million smartphones with positioning technologies were sold in the Chinese market last year, of which 30 percent were equipped with BDS technology, said the paper.
China's BDS technology can offer support in sectors including transportation, monitoring of deformation of large buildings and emergency situations, experts noted.
For example, domestic high-precision services provider Qxwz.com has announced that it will apply BDS' high-precision positioning services in deformation monitoring services for electric transmission lines of the State Grid Corp of China.
