context: China is using its market to set up BeiDou as an alternative to GPS. Precise and real time positioning will be crucial to future warfare, autonomous driving, smart manufacturing and the sharing economy, to name a few areas in which China is trying to gain a global advantage.
Ten BeiDou-3 satellites will be launched in 2018 to extend coverage to Belt and Road countries, says Xu Ying 徐颖 China Academy of Sciences Opto-Electronics Academy. 35 more satellites are scheduled by 2020 to realise global coverage, reports Shanghai Securities News. BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) is key to a space-time grid that China will build before 2035, says Ran Chengqi 冉承其 BDS Management Office director. The grid will cover air, land and water with precise and stable positioning needed for a 'smart internet of everything', says Ran.
Ministry of Transport and CCP Central Military Committee's 'Special plan on applying BDS to transportation (public version)' calls for BDS in all areas of transportation by 2020, and a positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system by 2025. The plan mentions building a network of signal amplification bases along coastal areas and the Yangzi. BDS will be used
- on ships
- in 80 percent of ground-level public transport
- in 100 percent of civil aviation at low altitude airspace surveillance
- in 100 percent of railway carriage dispatching and planning
This kicks off BeiDou popularisation, experts told Shanghai Securities News. NDRC mentioned BeiDou in its plan for smart and automated vehicles. State Council's 2013 ‘National satellite navigation industry mid- to long-term development plan’ aims for BeiDou to take up 60 to 80 percent of C¥400 bn industry by 2020. Consumer use, the largest growth market, may reach C¥200 bn, doubling its size, predicts the report.
Techtotop produced 14 million of the 18 million BeiDou chips sold in 2017, says a company representative, adding that its BeiDou/GPS chips are cheaper than overseas GPS-only chips. In 2015, the chip fund invested C¥1.5 bn in BDStar Navigation.