(Image source from: indiandefencenews.info)

Qualcomm which is a San Diego- based chip maker is going to use ‘Made In India’ NavIC technology in all the future Androind phones, sooner in the recent times. The NavIC is said to be designed by Indian Space research Organization (ISRO) and it stands for NAVigation with Indian Constellation.

Qsualcomm has launched three new chipsets named Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460 with the support for the NavIC which is the Indian version of GPS and is developed by ISRO.

The NavIC which is also called as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is reportedly on par with the three technologies which are GPS which is US based, GLONASS which belongs to Russia and Galileo developed by Europe.

It has been said that the NavIC consists of seven satellites and the range of 1,500 km from the borders of India including India will be covered by these satellites. The GPS is said to have consisting 24 satellites and offers coverage of the entire planet.

This means that, when people will use their smart phones while they travel from one point to another anywhere in India, the receiver that is present inside the phone will turn to the constellation of the seven satellites of NavIC through which the radio signals will be sent to each other and then to the receiver and allows it in determining the location and time at any point.

According to ISRO, two services will be provided by the NavIC which are Standard Positioning Service (SPS) and Restricted Service (RS) stating that the Standard Positioning Service will be provided to all the users where as the Restricted Service will be provided to only by few authorized users as it is an encrypted service.

Dr. K Sivan, the chairman of ISRO has stated in a press meet that ISRO is satisfied with the efforts that have been put in by Qualcomm in incorporating NavIC and the OEMs are being urged by the ISRO in order to leverage it for handset launches in the future in India. He added saying that the geological capabilities of the smart phones will be enhanced with the NavIC being available across multiple mobile platforms.

the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) will also be supported by the chipsets that are being introduced by Qualcomm. The GNSS includes the GPS that stands for global positioning system of the USA, Galileo of the European Union, GLONASS which belongs to Russia and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System of China, for the global coverage.

NavIC focuses only on India and is considered to be more accurate than GPS, by the ISRO. It is said that NavIC is powered by dual frequency (S and L bands) while GPS depends on only one band which is the L band.

the NavIC will not only be used by the smart phones but also by the Indian Air Force as it will be used in fighter jets for navigation requirements. The NavIC can also be used in disaster management, geodetic data capture, aerial and marine navigation being the few in the list.

It is also said that the NavIC trackers are required to be installed in the commercial vehicles which will be registered after April 1, 2019 which led to the making of NavIC trackers for the vehicles by over thirty Indian companies after the multichip module (MCM) which was developed by Taiwanese SkyTraQ has been procured by ISRO.

The Qualcomm chips that support the Nav-IC will be Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460 in which WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 along with faster 4G speeds will be supported.

The Chinese smart phone maker Xiaomi is expected to release around two to three mid- markets handsets later this year which consists of the NavIC receiver system.

By Shrithika Kushangi