China will be able to provide free global navigation and positioning services by 2020 with its own constellation of satellites named ‘Compass’, according to a report carried by the Xinhua state news agency.

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Compass would cover all of China and its adjacent regions by the end of 2010 or early 2011, and it would expand into a global network by 2020, Cao Chong, chief engineer of the China Electronics Technology Group Corp., told Xinhua.


Compass could provide civilian clients with positioning accuracy within 10 meters without charge, compared with the 5m to 6m offered by the U.S.-developed Global Positioning System (GPS), Cao said.


The system would also be used to transmit text messages in remote or maritime areas largely beyond the reach of conventional satellites and provide ‘authorised services’ for military purposes, Cao said.


This week China launched its second Compass navigation satellite, about two years after the first Compass module went into orbit.

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Cao said China would launch another 10 satellites within the next two years. The 12-satellite system could cover China and neighbouring regions for the first phase of the Compass program.


But it would take far more time to carry out the second phase, under which Compass would expand into a global network, he said. That would require at least 30 satellites.


A military official, who would only give her surname as Tang, said the Compass system would eventually include 35 satellites.


The Beidou-based Compass system is expected to rival the US-developed GPS, the EU’s GPS and Russia’s Global Navigation Satellite System, but Cao added: “It is hard to say which one is better for now.”