China has opened integrated data from BeiDou, its homegrown satellite navigation system, to the private market for the first time.
The Ministry of Natural Resources held a meeting in Beijing and launched public data services from its unified national network of reference stations, state broadcaster CCTV and other local media reported on the 4th.
BeiDou is a satellite navigation system China developed with concentrated national resources as a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System. Completed over two decades from 2000 to 2020, the project mobilized more than 400 institutions and over 300,000 scientists and put a total of 55 satellites into orbit.
BeiDou offers more precise positioning than GPS. It pinpoints altitude as well as latitude and longitude, making it especially useful at multilevel interchanges. It can also send and receive text messages on its own in areas without ground-based mobile networks.
Satellite navigation reference stations are core ground infrastructure that collect observation data and monitor signal quality. They provide spatial and temporal information essential for land planning, early disaster warnings and autonomous driving. China had about 33,000 such stations, but they were scattered across ministries and local governments with conflicting technical standards and no data compatibility.
The ministry built a nationwide integrated network to address the problem. A total of 7,569 unified BeiDou reference stations are now installed across China. The ministry said it will fully open the data to key industries and market participants in line with principles of security and efficiency.
"In the past, many industries built their own facilities, and the investment costs were enormous," said Chen Ming, head of basic surveying and mapping at the Ministry of Natural Resources. "This opening will effectively expand the fields where high-precision data services are applied, including autonomous driving, the low-altitude economy and urban renewal."
Total output of China's BeiDou-related industries reached 1.3323 trillion yuan (about 267 trillion won) last year, according to the Global Times.
Meanwhile, more than 98% of the 133 million mobile phones shipped in China in the first half of this year supported BeiDou positioning, Xinhua News Agency reported. Shared two-wheelers equipped with BeiDou-only positioning systems topped 14 million units in the first half, accounting for more than 90% of China's total market.
Wearable devices supporting BeiDou positioning number more than 160 million. Passenger cars fitted with in-vehicle positioning units have also passed 100 million. BeiDou terminals in use across key Chinese industries approached 40 million units.
