It is an independent stand-alone navigation satellite system that was originally approved in 2006.
Apple on September 13 unveiled the iPhone 15 series globally at its "Wonderlust" launch event. During its annual event, the tech giant also confirmed that its iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max handsets will support India's indigenous alternative to GPS, NavIC (Navigation with Indian Constellation).
It is the first time that the Cupertino-based company has introduced NavIC support to any of its iPhone models. It is worth noting that the standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus versions do not support NavIC.
Powered by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), NavIC will be available in the handsets along with other GPS systems of Galileo and GLONASS in iPhone 15.
What is NavIC?
It is an independent stand-alone navigation satellite system that was originally approved in 2006 and was expected to be completed by late 2011. However, NavIC only became operational in 2018.
As per ISRO, this regional navigation satellite system was basically established to meet the positioning, navigation and timing requirements of India. Before this NavIC was also known as IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System).
How does it work?
Designed with 7 satellites and a network of ground stations, NavIC's use is currently limited. Till now, it has been used in public vehicle tracking in the country.
Apart from this, the authorities also used it to provide emergency warning alerts to the fishermen venturing into the deep sea, where there is no connectivity to the terrestrial network. NavIC is also being used for providing information and tracking natural disasters.
ISRO informed that the 7 satellites and the ground stations are operating 24/7. Three of these satellites "are placed in the geostationary orbit", while four of them are "placed in inclined geosynchronous orbit."
ISRO added, "The ground network consists of a control centre, precise timing facility, range and integrity monitoring stations, two-way ranging stations, etc."
All in all, NavIC provides two services-SPS (Standard Position Service) is for civilian users and RS (Restricted Service) is for strategic users. Its coverage area includes the nation and a region up to 1500 km beyond the country's boundary.
ISRO stated, "NavIC signals are designed to provide user position accuracy better than 20m and timing accuracy better than 50 ns. NavIC SPS signals are interoperable with the other global navigation satellite system (GNSS) signals namely GPS, GLONASS, Galileo and BeiDou."