Time for a concerted view

Brussels, Belgium – The GIROADS Club welcomes the opportunity to present its contribution to the recent European Commission’s Green Paper on Satellite Navigation Applications which sets a framework for a public discussion on the policy & legal framework needed to support the successful introduction of innovative applications.

In a context where most of the news relayed by the media revolves around the difficult concession negotiation process, it is important to recall that Europe’s satellite navigation programme constitutes an enabler of European transport policy and will provide significant business opportunities for all road sector stakeholders.

GIROADS has established that Galileo’s differentiating characteristics with respect to the existing GPS are decisive for mass market applications with commercial or legal implications, where interruptions in the signal or lack of information over the position integrity could jeopardise the business model of such key GNSS services as Electronic Fee Collection or Pay-per-Use Insurance.

GIROADS also firmly believes in the "One On Board Unit – multiple services" concept requires the establishment of a European certification process based on system performances set by the end user rather than specific system designs in order to encourage the market introduction of different technologies and solutions.

GIROADS partners recognise the reality of data privacy concerns but believe these can be overcome through harmonised European initiatives that protect without any doubt the individual position data collected for use while enabling services providers to compute and charge the users for the services provided.

For a comprehensive overview of GALILEO perspectives in the road sector, don’t miss the next GIROADS workshop to be held on 11-13 June 2007 in Madrid "Galileo opportunities for the business sector". Details and registration available at www.intelligentroads.org

GIROADS (GNSS Introduction in the Road Sector) is a project commissioned by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority to aggregate the road community’s proposals facilitating the take-up of Europe’s satellite navigation programme by the road sector.

Additional background information (provided by Infrasite’s Editorial Staff)
Green Paper Satellite Navigation Applications adopted (2006-12-08)