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                            THE WHITE HOUSE



                      Office of the Vice President

________________________________________________________________________

For Immediate Release                                   January 25, 1999





                     VICE PRESIDENT GORE ANNOUNCES

         NEW GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM MODERNIZATION INITIATIVE





            Initiative Would Make Global Positioning System 

                   More Accessible to Civilian Users





     Washington, DC -- Vice President Gore announced today a $400 

million new initiative in the President's balanced budget that will 

modernize the Global Positioning System (GPS) and will add two new 

civil signals to future GPS satellites, significantly enhancing the 

service provided to civil, commercial, and scientific users worldwide.



     "The United States is proud to be a leader in the development of 

the Global Positioning System -- a wonderful example of how technology 

is benefiting our citizens and people around the world," Vice President 

Gore said. "This initiative represents a major milestone in the 

evolution of GPS as a global information utility, and will help us 

realize the full benefits of this technology in the next millennium."



     This initiative is only the most recent step in an ongoing

public-private effort to make GPS more responsive to the needs of 

civilian users worldwide.  National and regional GPS-based networks are 

now being created by governments and industry around the world to help 

guide everything from planes, trains, ships, and cars to tractors, 

snowplows, earthmovers, and mining equipment.



     As announced by Vice President Gore last March, the second civil

signal will be located at 1227.60 MHZ along with the current military

signal, and will be available for general use in non-safety-critical

applications.  The President's Budget supports implementing this new

signal on the satellites scheduled for launch beginning in 2003.



     Key to the overall modernization initiative was a recent White 

House decision on the frequency for a third civil signal that can meet 

the needs of critical safety-of-life applications such as civil 

aviation.  The third civil signal will be located at 1176.45 MHZ, 

within a portion of the spectrum that is allocated internationally for 

aeronautical radio navigation services, and will be implemented 

beginning with a satellite scheduled for launch in 2005. This 

initiative will cost $400 million over six years. The date that new 

services will be available to users will depend on the actual launch 

dates, orbiting sufficient numbers of satellites to provide useful 

services, and maintaining operational capabilities.



     When combined with the current civil signal at 1575.42 MHZ, the 

new signals will significantly improve the robustness and reliability 

of GPS for civil users, and will enable unprecedented real-time 

determination of highly accurate position location anywhere on Earth.  

This new capability will spur new applications for GPS, further 

expanding the rapidly growing market for GPS equipment and services 

worldwide.



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