Even though the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS) is still in its pre-operational phase, work is to start on its evolution towards a future Multi-constellation Regional System (MRS) for the European Space Agency.

Spanish company Indra is heading the group to study what it claims to be potential EGNOS evolution to offer a superior range of services to a greater number of users. Project budget is approximately $2.2 billion (E1.5 million) over 18-months.

The Indra team comprises:

• Astrium-EADS (Germany)
• Deimos Engenharia (Portugal)
• INECO (Spain)
• Novatel (Canada)
• Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Spain)

The goal is to analyze the possibilities for evolving current EGNOS into a multi-constellation system capable of improving regionally the features offered by different satellite systems – GPS, GLONASS, Compass/Beidou and Galileo.

Indra suggest that the supplemental positioning information could be used for European toll roads to collect fees, or for civil engineering projects that require centimeter-level accuracy. The supplemental information - in addition to satellite broadcasts - could also be disseminated through new communication channels such as radio, SMS, WIDI or WIMAX.

Once the study is complete, the team will develop a preliminary prototype before its possible industrial development.

Details from GPS World