China's Beidou starts service

Beijing's rival for the US Global Positioning System, Beidou, has started offering service.


China has been working on the project since 2000, launching the tenth of the navigation system's satellites into orbit earlier this month.


The BBC reports:


"Beidou - which translates as the Big Dipper - promises to offer civilian users positioning information correct to the nearest 10 metres, measure speeds within 0.2 metres per second, and provide clock synchronisation signals accurate to 0.02 millionths of a second.

The Chinese military will be able to obtain more accurate data.

A 2004 study by Geoffrey Forden, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, suggested that Beidou could be used to target cruise missiles against Taiwan if a war broke out over the territory. Having its own system would protect China against the risk that the US could turn GPS off.

A 2011 report for the website defensepolicy.org suggested the network could also be used to guide drones to destroy foreign naval forceswere China to come under attack.

However, Beidou's developers also stress day-to-day benefits for the public.

They told China Daily that the system could create a 400 billion yuan ($63.2bn, £40.4bn) market in related applications for the automotive, telecommunications, fishing and other industries by 2020."