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Tracking users
One side benefit of the Beidou system, however, is that it "allows the ground station to monitor the whereabouts of users, which a passive system can't do," according to the industry source.
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Lan Yun, a South China Sea study expert and editor of the Beijing-based Modern Ships, agrees. "In fact the Beidou-1 system has been used since 2007 to monitor Chinese fishing vessels in the South China Sea," he said.
"Application in remote regions like Xinjiang and Nansha was taken into consideration in the designing phase," Lan told the Global Times. "The terminals can also send and receive text messages," he added.
The Beidou-1 system made its public debut in the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Disaster relief troops used terminals in the ruins of Wenchuan to get real-time whereabouts and communicate with their superiors.
From 2003 to 2008, the number of users has grown from several thousand to about 80,000, the Beijing-based China Newsweek reported. The system has been used in timing, transportation, disaster relief, water conservancy, meteorology and many other areas, according to a presentation made by the China Satellite Navigation Office in October 2010.
However, 95 percent of the Chinese satellite navigation market is occupied by GPS, according to the Xi'an Manifesto issued by the eighth Beidou Satellite Navigation System Application Forum.
"Beidou's market is limited," admitted the aerospace insider, "but I guess there will be some policy support to ensure the profitability of the future Beidou systems."
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