You both have licenses to sell Galileo receivers.

Are you in fact selling them?

To whom?

TM: You have to have a contractual agreement with ESA, and as a consequence you can receive a license to sell the technology you develop.

For us it was the Galileo Receiver Chain program, and for Septentrio it was Test User Segment.

We had to choose what to do and not to do. There’s another aspect. For the first time today we get an opening of a window, to look at trying to commercialize this. Both of us started with this very early on. PG: I fully agree on this. Back then it was far more uncertain whether this, [Galileo] would become really tangible and we made an investment because we believed.

The license today is the result of five years of work with ESA.

TM: The type of people who want early experience, early access to the Galileo signals: test agencies, academics, research organizations.

It’s not a financial bonanza. It’s seeding the industry, seeding the applications, beginning the process of rolling out the applications.

TM: We have restrictions as well as opportunities. So launch more satellites, give us more opportunity to sell more.

and European Commission have, there’s not a great deal we can do.

It’s not linked to a development agreement we have with ESA, or us working for ESA, developing technology for ESA, that under contract terms we have a license to use. TM: Whatever agreements the U. S.

did not believe Galileo would become a tangible program. I remember conversations back then that the U. Those that elected to bid were those that believed in the possibilities. S. Thanks to hard work and believing in the, system hard work in the lab and with the lawyers, now for the first time we’re able to sell in limited quantities.

Being successful in 2002 was the result of competing on open tenders that were available to all industry.

Now we have a full license for 10 years from ESA (the European Space Agency). Tony Murfin, NovAtel (TM): We had an interim agreement at that same time.

PG: More than single digits.

PG/TM: We have good friends who are announcing multi-system material as well. One was probably more optimistic than perhaps others, and it worked. He doesn’t need a license because he doesn’t have to do anything that he agreed with ESA.

He just picked up the signal spec from the website and he’s off and running.

How many receivers have you sold? Single digits, dozens, hundreds?

We got the license agreement in the last days of February. In fact, we have been wanting to sell receivers for quite some time. We had some pent-up demand by the time we finally got the ESA agreement to sell them. Peter Grognard, Septentrio (PG): Yes, definitely.

This possibility was contractually there, but it has taken us some time to really get the license, and to be able to use it. PG: The reason that I mention this is that we have been working for several years, since early 2002.

PG: I would like to stress that NovAtel and us getting this license is a consequence of the contractual framework with ESA.

They were EuroPak-15a receivers. It came out as a regular process of doing business for ESA. They had to decide that they wanted to do it. We both had license applications pending for a year, more than a year. We actually sold some receivers before, the license configured as GPS only, and afterwards provided the Galileo updates.

In fact, we made the application with the proposal back in the early part of 2005. TM: I think ESA wheels had to turn.

government claims that this is unfair, that it’s not “a level playing field? S. “

What do you say regarding some manufacturers’ and U.

TM: Yes, in our case as well.

TM There are people doing pseudolite testing, simulator testing–they’re using our: receiver, too.

PG: There’s only one satellite.

All you can do is assess signal performance, multipath performance from one satellite. Who’s interested in that? It’s research organizations that want to determine what might be a good candidate signal, or help characterize the final signal.

PG: You see this is a very competitive business!

We did onboard-calculate PVT using the GIOVE navigation message that was turned on experimentally three weeks ago.

Our AsteRx1 does combined GPS/Galileo position, velocity, time (PVT). That starts to make it attractive for live demonstration purposes.

I cannot afford to start working on an ESA contract, and say I only take the good things and not take the difficult ones, too. PG: We have to play by the rules. Us announcing that we get the licenses is a sign that within the contractual framework, we can sell to whoever’s interested.