From: George Sherwood 

Ad wrote:
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/05/17/galileo_is_military/
>
> A civie system with mil users vs a mil system with civie users....

I think this says it pretty good for me.  I don't think this system is
going to make it.

George

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2007/05/will-white-elephant-fly.html

Another of those perpetual mysteries, for which there seems no rational
explanation, is the almost complete inability of the popular media to cover
the EU's white elephant, the Galileo satellite navigation system.

You would have thought, for instance, that the proposal this week of the EU
commission to raise a levy on all GPS receivers might have attracted some
attention, but no. Perhaps it was missed because the proposal was buried
towards the end of its 20-page "communication" rather than in the
press release, which is possibly why it was missed by the specialist media
as well.

As an added twist to the whole sorry saga, however, they may have cause to
look east, to Russia where, overshadowed by the EU-Russia summit last week,
Putin signed last Friday a decree on the Glonass navigation system to
provide the service free for customers. "Access to civilian navigation
signals of global navigation satellite system Glonass is provided to
Russian and foreign consumers free of charge and without limitations,"
the presidential decree reads.

Furthermore, Putin has charged the Russian Federal Space Agency with
coordinating work to maintain, develop and use the system for civilian and
commercial needs. Russia intends to re-commission the service, with a full
orbital group of 24 satellites ready for global coverage by the end of
2009, fully compatible with the US GPS service. A total of $380 million has
been appropriated for Glonass from the federal budget in 2007, on top of
the $181 million allocated in 2006.

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