By Li Guoli and Qi Xiaojun

BEIJING, March 5 -- Since its official opening to global services, the BDS-3 system, under China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, has been operating stably and continuously providing world-class quality services to users around the world. 

The results of a real-time test by the Interactive Geophysical Modelling Application System (iGMAS), an international monitoring and assessment system, have showsed that the performances on positioning, speed measurement, timing accuracy, and the service availability and continuity of the BDS-3 system all meet the index requirements.

The special services of the BDS-3 system have been avaliable in various fields, such as the regional short message communication (RSMC) and global short message communication (GSMC) services for mass users, the satellite-based augmentation services for civil aviation, maritime and rail transportation, as well as the precise point positioning for precison farming, land surveying and auto-driving. Besides, comprehensive breakthroughs have been achieved in key technologies, including the domestically-made BeiDou chips and modules that support the BDS-3 system. With performance indicators equivalent to those of similar international products, they have been widely used in various industries. The domestically-made BDS basic products have been exported to more than 120 countries and regions.

At the same time, the application of the BDS-3 system in the mass consumption has achieved remarkable results. Since the opening of its global services, the BDS-3 system has been widely recognized by mainstream international smartphone manufacturers including Apple. The RSMC of the BDS-3 system will be available on smartphones within this year, realizing the integrated application of mobile communication and short message communication. The high-precision ground-based augmentation information provided by the BDS-3 system is now available on smartphones, which can achieve meter-level positioning.

As is planned, China will build a more intelligent comprehensive positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system based on the BDS by 2035, in a bid to construct spatial-temporal information service infrastructures with unified criteria and high precision, security, intelligence, flexibility and effectiveness covering space, sky, ground and sea.