U.S. FCC ruling will help make smartphone GPS more accurate

“GPS stands for ‘global positioning system,’ which is slightly ironic since it’s owned and operated by the US Air Force,” Steve Dent writes for Engadget. “However, the FCC has just made a move to open up satellite navigation beyond America’s borders. A new order means your smartphone can also use Europe’s Galileo system, which will make sat nav faster and more accurate, the regulator said.”
“Europe created Galileo so it would have civilian and military alternatives to the US GPS and Russia’s GLONASS system,” Dent writes. “It first started launching satellites in 2005, and has now launched 26 out of the 30 planned. Service came online in 2016.”
“Your phone can probably use Galileo already, but the functionality is disabled because of US regulations against ground radios connecting to foreign satellites,” Dent writes. “To enable the two bands (out of three) now permitted, your device maker might need to roll an update out to you.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: The FCC says that with this action, consumers and industry in the United States will be permitted to access certain satellite signals from the Galileo system to augment the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS), and thus benefit from improved availability, reliability, and resiliency of these position, navigation, and timing services in the United States.