The report, titled “Global Navigation Satellite System Market Assessment – In Pursuit of New Business Opportunities,” identified the European VAS market for GNSS as having one of the fastest growth rates among regions at 10.9 percent. Frost & Sullivan predicts that its 2012 value of 16.90 billion euros will reach 28.54 billion euros in eight years.

   “The GNSS, with its current standing in terms of accuracy and reliability of service, is ready for providing non-safety of life applications to include Road Services and Location-based Services, among others,” Frost & Sullivan Defense and Security Aerospace Analyst Sabbir Ahmed wrote in the report.

   GNSS was first conceived as a purely military application, but has now widened to include users in government agencies, industries and even the consumer markets. Ahmed sees an increasing prominence of Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) data derived from GNSS and associated Value Added Services (VAS) in the next 10 to 20 years.

   “Much of the present weaknesses in PNT market space are expected to be fully mitigated through multi-GNSS approach, but that means industry will have to wait until at least 2020 to reach full potential,” said Ahmed. “However, highly regulated Safety-of-Life (SOL), Publicly Regulated Service (PRS), and Search-And-Rescue (SAR) applications are anticipated to come to maturity by 2015.”

   GNSS has worked to provide seamless Global Positioning System (GPS) service throughout the entire world for both military and commercial markets since 1973. The ongoing upgrade of the system includes 32 new satellites and the fourth civil signal (L1C) with the GPS Block 3 launches, as well as new ground control systems.

   Frost & Sullivan noted that the Russian Glonass system has also recently started to play an important role, but added that despite being global in nature with 24 satellites, its services have been limited to its own territory and part of Europe. At the same time, the analysis firm sees the European Galileo project as having more promise. Galileo already has four satellites in orbit and is expected to be partially operational by the end of 2014.

   “The U.S. GPS system would no longer be the sole player in global Position, Navigation, Velocity and Timing (PNVT) market space,” the firm said in its report. “As of now, GPS and Glonass are already interoperable, and Galileo is designed to be compatible with GPS. Additionally, the Chinese Compass/BeiDou already has the 16th satellite in orbit and global services are expected with full constellation by 2020. This product is set to bring competition in the market, particularly in the APAC region.”

   The international aviation sector has also transformed in position, navigation, approach and landing and CNS/ATM to include GNSS. Ahmed said that specific transformation shows that GNSS-related products are already being accepted, with significant intake expected by 2021.

   “We recommend investors focus on specific application segments where technology is already matured in the short term through 2014),” Ahmed wrote. “However, the development of innovative products/applications with resilient features and guaranteed service will resist competition from cheap product manufacturers. In the long term [through 2021], industry focus should be on SOL applications for Aviation, as well as PRS for first responders/government agencies. Businesses should work closely with government stakeholders to understand requirements, and contribute to formulating policies towards creating demands in the target market.”