It's time to bid adieu to the American Global Positioning System a.k.a GPS and welcome the desi navigation system the so-called Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System otherwise called as IRNSS.
With this system, the ISRO will provide GPS connectivity to most of the rural part in India by 2016. For this mission, ISRO will be using seven satellites namely IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E, 1F and 1G out of which IRNSS-1A, 1B, 1C, 1D are already in the Orbit. The remaining three satellites including 1E, 1F and 1G will be launched in January, February and March respectively.
Meanwhile, the ISRO organization is hoping to get the IRNSS fully operationable by next year July. Moreover, the Indian Space Research Organization requesting the device manufacturer's to incorporate the additional hardware, so that the device can receive the signals from IRNSS.
As per the official, the so-called IRNSS will provide location accurately to almost 20 meters. This data from IRNSS can be used in all the devices, which supports the additional hardware.
In an interview, a senior ISRO official said, "Both these L and S band signals received from seven satellite constellation of the IRNSS are being calculated by special embedded software which reduces the errors caused by atmospheric disturbances significantly. This in turn gives superior quality location accuracy than the American GPS system."
Moreover, ISRO is also planning to provide GPS signal to the surrounding countries as well. With US and Russia having their own navigation satellite system, the initiative from ISRO which covers India and 1500kms from its boundary is indeed a brilliant effort in international arena!