SoftBank, u-blox Work on GNSS Augmentation Services
SoftBank, ALES and u-blox have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cooperate in GNSS augmentation services for global markets.
SoftBank provides the “ichimill” GNSS augmentation service in Japan, it’s subsidiary ALES operates a business that generates and delivers positioning correction data, and u-blox is a leading global provider of positioning services for the automotive, industrial and consumer markets.
Makoto Noda, Vice President, Enterprise Business Unit (in charge of Solution Engineering) at SoftBank Corp. and President of ALES Corp. commented, “Breaking down the geographical fragmentation of the market for high-precision GNSS solutions will allow SoftBank to market the same product in the USA, Europe, and Japan. As a one-stop-shop for all the required hardware and service components, including their GNSS augmentation service, u-blox is the ideal partner to help SoftBank and ALES achieve our vision of global expansion.”
Franco De Lorenzo, Principal Product Manager, Services, at u-blox commented, “Our customers, which include automotive OEMs and Tier 1s, depend on globally consistent GNSS augmentation services to sell vehicles across multiple markets. So do the manufacturers of industrial IoT devices and unmanned aerial and ground vehicles. We are confident that our collaboration with SoftBank will help us provide the level of service our customers need for true global high precision applications.”
u-blox also provides electronic components for wireless communications and the “PointPerfect” GNSS augmentation service in Europe, the USA and other countries and regions.
Through this business collaboration, SoftBank, ALES and u-blox will construct GNSS augmentation infrastructure for Japan, Europe and the USA, develop GNSS receivers and devices, and expand service areas.
Seeing an opportunity to construct a usage environment that enables the provision of common GNSS augmentation services in Japan, the USA and Europe, SoftBank, ALES and u-blox agreed to business collaboration.
SoftBank is promoting the deployment of Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) solutions that encompass satellite- and stratospheric-based telecommunication platforms to provide connectivity to the sea, the sky, developing countries and rural areas lacking Internet infrastructure so everyone around the world has access to the Internet. The three companies will consider the development of NTN-linked services, such as correction data delivery using small amounts of data in a way that is suitable for NTN bandwidths.
