ISRO, Qualcomm partner to support India’s regional navigation satellite system NavIC

Qualcomm Technologies, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), announced support for Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), in select chipset platforms of the company. Qualcomm has developed and tested the chipset platform across its portfolio, which can support the Indian regional Navigation satellite system. NavIC is India's autonomous regional satellite navigation system that provides accurate real-time positioning and timing services.

“We’ve been at the forefront of introducing the latest technology inventions and solutions, which our industry partners harvest to bring their own innovative products to market. Our technological breakthroughs and extensive engineering support have helped a robust mobile ecosystem to thrive in India and are enabling the development of cutting-edge technology and new use cases.” said Rajen Vagadia, vice president, Qualcomm India Private Limited. “We are pleased to be working with ISRO in bringing NavIC to Indian consumers and enhance their navigation experience via high accuracy and greater reliability.”

The initiative will help accelerate the adoption of NavIC and enhance the geo-location capabilities of mobile, automotive and the Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in the region, with the backing of Qualcomm Technologies’ engineering talent based in India, says ISRO.

The first-ever NavIC demonstration using the Snapdragon Mobile Platforms is expected to be showcased by Qualcomm at the ongoing India Mobile Congress in New Delhi, India. Support for NavIC will be available in Qualcomm Technologies platforms for OEMs to leverage starting from November 2019.

“NavIC is a critical step forward in our pursuit of harnessing space technology for national development and we are eager to make it accessible to everyone for their day to day use. ISRO is very happy to work with Qualcomm to enable NavIC on Mobile platforms. Qualcomm’s technology leadership and support for NavIC on their mobile platforms will bring the benefits of this indigenous solution to every Indian. ISRO appreciates Qualcomm for enabling the technology demonstration of NavIC support on mobile platform for the very first time,” said ISRO chairman K Sivan.

As part of the updated platforms, the Qualcomm Location Suite now supports up to seven satellite constellations concurrently, including the use of all of NavIC’s operating satellites for more accurate location performance, faster time-to-first-fix (TTFF) position acquisition, and improved robustness of location-based services.