The Government of India recently announced its plans to mandate NavIC support for all mobile devices by 2025. Speaking on it, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that all 5G-enabled phones should support NavIC by January 1, 2025; while all mobile phones should support the same by December 2025, as per media reports.
Short for Navigation with Indian Constellation, NavIC is a satellite-based navigation, just like the USA’s Global Positioning System (GPS). It has been developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The recently launched Made in India Apple smartphones — iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, are said to support India’s indigenous navigation system.
While NavIC is the Indian one and GPS is the most widely used one, there are other global navigation satellite systems, or GNSS, as well. For starters, a GNSS is a network of satellites employed for navigation and positioning measurements. These include:
GPS
Offering worldwide coverage, GPS is the first and the most prevalent GNSS. Developed by the United States, the first satellite was launched in 1978, and the first series of satellites became fully operational by 1993. Comprising 31 satellites, it offers both civilian and military services. While the former is available to all users worldwide continuously, the military service is available for the US and allied forces.
GLONASS
Short for Global Navigation Satellite System, GLONASS is the GNSS developed by Russia. Just like GPS, it, too, offers worldwide coverage. After the launch of the first satellite in 1982, the constellation was fully launched in 1995
and offered full coverage across Russia in 2010. Presently, it comprises 24 satellites.
Galileo
Developed by and operated out of the European Union (EU), Galileo, launched in 2011, is a more recent constellation. Currently having 25+ satellites, it, too, provides worldwide coverage just like its American and Russian counterparts. “With Galileo, users now have a new, reliable alternative that, unlike these other programmes, remains under civilian control,” it says on the website. “Galileo allows users to know their exact position with greater precision than what is offered by other available systems,” it adds.
BeiDou
Launched in 2000, BeiDou is a GNSS developed and operated out of China. Consisting of about 30 satellites, it also offers global coverage. Since the start of services, it has been “widely used in transportation, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, hydrological monitoring, meteorological forecasting, communication, power dispatching, disaster relief, public security and other fields, and has been serving national significant infrastructures, thereby resulting in remarkable economic and social benefits,” it says on the website.
QZSS
Short for Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, QZSS has been developed by Japan. Unlike GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou, QZSS offers regional coverage across Japan and Asia-Pacific. Being regional, QZSS currently operates with four satellites in orbit.
The indigenous navigation system
Just like QZSS, NavIC offers regional coverage covering India and extending 1,500 kilometres beyond the country’s borders. Its primary coverage area includes India, parts of South Asia, the Indian Ocean region, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.
It consists of seven satellites and a group of ground stations. The first satellite was launched back in 2013 with the constellation being fully launched in 2018 with the launch of the seventh satellite.
While NavIC offers less coverage than its counterparts that offer coverage worldwide, it is interoperable with all of them. Notably, while NavIC chiefly navigates over India, and 1,500 kilometres, beyond it; others manoeuvre around the earth twice, daily. The Indian navigation system offers two services: standard position service (SPS) for civilian users and restricted service (RS) for strategic users. Its uses include transportation, personal mobility, location-based services, surveying, resource monitoring, scientific research, and safety-of-life alert dissemination, among others.
While GPS is already widely used across India, NavIC can offer independence from systems operated out of other countries. Since it is indigenous, it has also been developed keeping India’s topography in mind. Hence, it can be better to navigate through the country’s landscape and geography. It can also help with good accuracy during emergencies, calamities, and wars.
