China's GPS 'rival' Beidou

Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by justfor1comment on Monday October 22, 2018 @03:05PM (#18277344)

India did something similar a few months ago. Each country wants to build it's own GPS for military purposes. At some point we have to stop calling it 'Global' Positioning System.

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Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by kec on Monday October 22, 2018 @03:15PM (#18277439)

The "global" refers to the fact that it works globally, not that it exists for the good of humanity.

Navstar (owned by USDoD, what is commonly called "GPS"), GLONASS and soon Galileo all have global coverage.

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Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by romwell on Monday October 22, 2018 @05:22PM (#18278641)

Yup, GLONASS = GLObal NAvigational Satellite System.

Although one should note that name is the intention; it has not always had global coverage (it does now), and may not always have global coverage in the future (say, if they decide to increase the precision in a strategic area at the cost of loss of coverage in others).

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Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by nradov on Monday October 22, 2018 @03:09PM (#18277382)

The generic term is Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). GPS is one type of GNSS.

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Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by thaumasiotes on Monday October 22, 2018 @03:15PM (#18277443)

I really don't see a problem with describing any and all systems that tell you your position on the globe as "global positioning systems".

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Re:China's GPS 'rival' Beidou by tinus_hn on Tuesday October 23, 2018 @04:09AM (#18281616)

Japan has its own positioning satellites (QZSS) that are only visible from the region around Japan. It’s designed so positioning works if you’re in a city with skyscrapers.

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