Xiaomi To Launch Smartphones With NavIC, Indian Version Of GPS; Talks With ISRO For Use Of Chipsets In Advance Stage

The Chinese mobile manufacturer Xiaomi is in advanced stage of talks with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the provision of chipsets that can support Indian space agency’s regional navigation satellite system, NavIC.

The NavIC-supporting chipset is being manufactured by the United States’ chip manufacturing giant Qualcomm and is designed to provide accurate information service to users in India as well as the region extending up to 1,500 km from its boundary, which is its primary service area.

"Qualcomm has announced that its chip is going to have NaVIC and they are releasing it. Now almost Xiaomi is in agreement to have it. Xiaomi may launch its mobile phones with NavIC chipsets," an ISRO official said, reports Economic Times.

The ISRO official said the international body 3GPP has formally approved usage of NavIC, allowing the ISRO to collaborate with Qualcomm.

NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation) is the operational name of the ISRO’s Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

The IRNSS, according to ISRO, was developed for terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management and integration with mobile phones.

IRNSS will provide two types of services, namely, Standard Positioning Service (SPS) which is provided to all the users and Restricted Service (RS), which is an encrypted service provided only to the authorised users. The IRNSS System is expected to provide a position accuracy of better than 20 m in the primary service area.