What is NavIC Chip?
NavIC Chip is also known as Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The Full form of NavIC is Navigation With Indian Constellation. As Name indicates it is mainly developed for users in India as well as region extending upto 1500km from boundary. An Extended Service Area lies between primary service area and area enclosed by the rectangle from Latitude 30 deg South to 50 deg North, Longitude 30 deg East to 130 deg East.
IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.
When it was annouced?
The satellite system was first announced in 2007 and was meant to be fully functional by 2012 but it did not happen due to various constraints. The first of the seven satellite was sent into orbit in 2013.
Accuracy of NavIC
With Seven Sateliite, NavIC system is intended to provide an absolute position accuracy of better than 10 metres (33 ft) throughout Indian landmass and better than 20 metres (66 ft) in the Indian Ocean as well as a region extending approximately 1,500 km around India.The GPS, for comparison, had a position accuracy of 20–30 m.Therefore, NavIC is more accurate than GPS.
Benifits of NavIC
- Aerial and marine navigation
- Disaster Management
- Tracking vehicles and fleet management for businesses
- Improved Timing
- Improved Mapping and Geodetic data capture
- Terrestrial navigation aid for hikers and travellers
- Visual and voice navigation for drivers
How will NavIC Smartphone users?
Qualcomm had, in October 2019 announced that it will add NavIC support to its chipsets. In January, the company announced that three of its Snapdragon chipsets – the Snapdragon 720G, Snapdragon 662, and the Snapdragon 460 will support NavIC.
The older smartphones with old chipset will not support NavIC
Official Website: ISRO
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