BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China will provide unique services to global users with the Beidou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) after its construction is finished in 2020, an official said Friday.
Along with basic positioning, navigation and time services, the BDS will provide six categories of special services that distinguish it from other systems, said BDS spokesperson Ran Chengqi at a press conference.
The satellite-based augmentation system of the BDS will provide high-precision and high-integrity services to users in civil aviation, maritime, railway and other industries.
In precise point positioning, the BDS will provide users in China and surrounding areas with decimeter-level dynamic positioning and centimeter-level static positioning, meeting the demand for high-precision service in fields like land surveying and mapping, agriculture and automatic driving.
Another kind of unique service is regional short message communications. Users can send a message of up to 1,000 Chinese characters and it is expected to be integrated into mobile platforms like smartphones.
As for global short message communications, China has launched 14 medium earth orbit satellites carrying payloads for that purpose.
For the ground-based augmentation system, China has built more than 2,000 stations, forming a nationwide network providing positioning services at different accuracy levels.
For international search and rescue, six medium earth orbit satellites will work with other global medium-orbit search and rescue systems to provide more efficient and high-quality services. Trapped people can obtain rescue confirmation info through the services.
Friday marks the one-year anniversary of China's BDS-3 system providing global services. China will finish the construction of the BDS-3, with another two satellites to be launched before June 2020.
