(HE JUNCHANG)

The China Satellite Navigation Office announced the Beidou Navigation Satellite System's availability for civilian use at a press conference in Beijing on December 27, 2012.

Spokesperson Ran Chengqi provided technical specifications for China's indigenous navigation system, which is comparable to the United States' Global Positioning System in general functionality and performance, but more cost-effective.

Beidou provides positioning, navigation, timing and short message services, with positioning accuracy of 10 meters, velocity accuracy of 0.2 meters per second and one-way timing accuracy of 50 nanoseconds.

The office issued a document in Chinese and English specifying signal-interface relations between the Beidou system and receivers. Release of the specifications is expected to facilitate the development of Beidou applications by Chinese and foreign enterprises.

China launched the system's first satellite in 2000, and a preliminary version of Beidou has been used in traffic control, weather forecasting and disaster relief work on a trial basis since 2003. Beidou consists of 16 navigation satellites and four experimental satellites.