Europe’s Galileo and satellite navigation are the focus of an international conference to be held in Malta on October 12.

The conference is organised by the Malta Communications Authority in conjunction with the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and with the direct participation of the European Commission, the European GNSS Supervisory Authority and Logica Space & Defence.

The conference will discuss the benefits of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) and Galileo. Galileo, Europe’s strategic global navigation satellite system is set to be operational in 2014. With a fully deployed configuration of 30 satellites in medium Earth orbit, Galileo will provide unprecedented positioning precision and accuracy down to a few metres. The system will improve the availability of positioning services in cities where tall buildings can obstruct signals from satellites that are low on the horizon.

Moreover, not only will Galileo provide both its European and global users with guaranteed and reliable uninterrupted service, something that the current GPS system does not, it will also possess a built-in reliability check to warn of any loss of integrity in the system, a crucial feature for emergency and other critical services, such as search and rescue.

The conference will also discuss Galileo and GNSS participation opportunities for the local industry such as funding, grants and knowledge-transfer programs with other member states. The MCA is already working very closely with the European Commission and will be cooperating with other member states to assist interested stakeholders in these initiatives.

According to a recent study by the European GNSS Authority (GSA), the global market for satellite-based navigation products and services will reach €250 billion by 2030. The study also indicates that Galileo will increase the overall value of the market by about €14 billion over the period 2010-2027 in the areas of transport and logistics, communication, land surveying, agriculture, fisheries, environmental protection, scientific research, tourism and leisure, social networking and many other applications. The private industry plays a very important role in the innovation process by developing new applications and providing services in this area of satellite navigation.

Registrations are open on e-mail info@mca.org.mt or telephone no. 2133 6840.

www.mca.org.mt

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