GPS, also known as Global Positioning System is a worldwide popular satellite-based navigation system, including in India.
The smartphone companies operating in India, such as Apple, Xiaomi, and Samsung, including others have been asked to support the NavIC navigation system in their newly manufactured devices, which these companies will introduce in the market for sales next year.
The U.S. government owns the GPS, and it is the widely popular satellite-based navigation system, across the world. India is aiming to push its navigation system to reduce dependence on GPS, and other such navigation systems.
NavIC is a desi version of navigation technology. The government has proposed to support the technology developed in India by embedding it in all the smartphones manufactured in country, as per sources.
NavIC got approval in 2006, but it became fully operational in 2018, due to the seven satellites that cover the whole Indian territory. NavIC owns four geosynchronous satellites and three geostationary satellites located in higher orbits.
The NavIC system is predicted to offer a position accuracy of more than 20 metres in the major service area. The location accuracy of the system has tremendously improved in urban locations, where geolocation accuracy seems to be degrading.
The India-owned navigation system is partly developed due to restricted access to foreign government-controlled navigation systems in hostile situations. The country wants to propel the NavIC coverage worldwide. Hence, it pushes tech companies to manufacture devices with compatibility with the new standard.
ISRO is also planning to launch the satellite in the year 2024 to 2025, and support the L1 band which offers support to GPS, and GLONASS.
Presently, mobile phone chipsets support the L1 band. L5 band has a NavIC presence. Their combination is consultative.
The smartphone company players are worried due to tight deadlines and the additional costs required to integrate new phones.
Several mobile and chipset companies said that the embedding of NavIC will incur the additional cost, due to existing chipsets’ support to extended support to frequency bands, and their suitability for Russian navigation system GLONASS and US navigation system GPS.
A timeline of January 2025 has been proposed to support the NavIC in smartphones manufactured in the country. There are only a few chipsets, including Snapdragon mobile platforms 662, 720G, and 460 to support the desi navigation technology.
All 5G Mediatek chipsets support NavIC technology, with additional hardware requirements. Mobile companies such as Oppo, and Samsung flagged the NavIC introduction will cause additional costs due to the requirement for altering hardware design and product development to cater to India-specific needs.
The government’s proposal to support the NavIC technology aims at reducing dependence on foreign technology.