Minister of State for Electronics, Information, and Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, announced on Thursday that the recently unveiled iPhone 15 series by Apple incorporates India’s indigenous NavIC satellite system, a development he hailed as a significant achievement for the country. Chandrasekhar also took pride in the fact that these phones are being released in India simultaneously with their launch in New York and London.
“Apple, the world’s leading technology company, has introduced its latest iPhone 15. In this launch, India attained two significant milestones. Firstly, the iPhone 15 will be available in India on the same day as it is in New York and London… And secondly, the NavIC GPS satellite system, created by ISRO, will be integrated into the iPhone 15,” reported a news agency, quoting the Union minister.
Apple Inc. debuted its highly anticipated iPhone 15 series on Tuesday at its annual ‘Wonderlust’ event.
About NavIC: ISRO has established a regional navigation satellite system called Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC), previously known as the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), to cater to the nation’s positioning, navigation, and timing needs. It was launched to reduce reliance on global navigation satellite systems controlled by foreign authorities.
Independently developed by ISRO, NavIC was initially sanctioned in 2006 at an estimated cost of $174 million (₹1,426 crore), with an anticipated completion date in late 2011. It became operational in 2018.
NavIC provides two services: the Standard Position Service (SPS) for civilian users and the Restricted Service (RS) for strategic users. These services are available in both L5 (1176.45 MHz) and S-band (2498.028 MHz).
The coverage area of NavIC spans India and extends up to 1500 km beyond India’s borders. NavIC SPS signals are compatible with signals from other global navigation satellite systems (GNSS), including GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou.
NavIC applications include terrestrial, aerial, and marine transportation, location-based services, personal mobility, monitoring of resources, surveying, scientific research, time dissemination, synchronization, as well as the dissemination of safety-of-life alerts.
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