U.S. Announces GPS Upgrades

As previously announced, Deputy Commerce Secretary David Sampson announced new Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities today. The secretary said the improvements will lead to greater accuracy and reliability, and will benefit cell phone communications.

RCR News has the story:

"The new signal-known as 'L2C-was specifically designed with commercial needs in mind," said Deputy Commerce Secretary David Sampson in remarks prepared for delivery at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce press event this morning. "For example, it is transmitted with a higher effective power, so GPS receivers work better in urban areas and indoors. And it requires less energy to receive the signal, an important feature for battery-powered devices such as mobile phones."

A few more details would have been nice. But members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce don't strike me as the most technologically adept audience. Hopefully more details will be forthcoming.