Qualcomm Technologies and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have collaborated where the former will provide commercial chipsets for India’s Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC). The initiative is aimed at accelerating the adoption of NavIC and enhance the geolocation capabilities of mobile, automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. The NavIC demonstration using the Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platforms can be seen at the India Mobile Congress 2019.
‘NavIC is a critical step forward in our pursuit of harnessing space technology for national development and we are eager to make it accessible to everyone for their day to day use. ISRO is very happy to be working with Qualcomm Technologies to enable NavIC on Mobile platforms. Qualcomm Technologies’ leadership and support for NavIC on their mobile platforms will bring the benefits of this indigenous solution to every Indian. ISRO appreciates Qualcomm Technologies for enabling the technology demonstration of NavIC support on mobile platform for the very first time,’ Dr. K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO and Secretary, Department of Space, said in a statement.
The solution is built on Qualcomm Technologies’ inventions in location-based position technology. One of them is the Qualcomm Location Suite, which supports up to seven satellite constellations concurrently. The support includes the use of all of NavIC’s operating satellites for more accurate location performance, faster time-to-first-fix (TTFF) position acquisition, and improved robustness of location-based services.
These enhancements will enable select mobile, automotive and IoT platforms to better serve key industries and technology ecosystems and will help improve user experience for location-based applications, especially in dense urban environments where geolocation accuracy tends to degrade.
‘We’re pleased to enhance our commitment to India by enabling support for NavIC in our chipset platforms and continuing our work with ISRO to accelerate NavIC’s adoption. This collaboration is the result of our long-standing presence and investments in the region, including a substantive local engineering force and ongoing initiatives aimed at empowering India’s technology and innovation ecosystems, such as the Qualcomm Design in India Challenge and Qualcomm Innovation Lab,’ said Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
Support for NavIC will be available in select Qualcomm Technologies’ chipset platforms starting in late 2019 and commercial devices with NavIC support are expected to be available during the first half of 2020.
