Where Are We? - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 175

Service and gps are supposed to share a new common civilian signal, e1/l1c,
on the same frequency by using a technique called multiplex binary offset car-
rier (mboc), developed by a joint task force during the negotiations that pro-
duced the 2004 U.S.-European agreement. However, a transatlantic tempest
erupted in April 2012 after the United Kingdom awarded a patent for mboc to
a wholly owned subsidiary of the British military's UK Defence Science and
Technology Laboratory. 222 It listed the inventors as two British engineers who
were part of the joint task force. 223 A patent would force manufacturers to pay
royalties and raise the prices of receivers designed for a taxpayer-funded free
service. Even the U.S. military would pay more because it purchases many
civilian devices for noncombat missions. 224 The patent dispute appeared headed
for resolution after the British secretary of state for defence in October 2012
asked the European Patent Office to revoke the patent. 225
There is also the matter of Galileo's funding. Cost overruns, together with
slow economic growth, monetary problems, and austerity measures among
member nations, remain a challenge. The European Parliament approved €3.4
billion in late 2007 to cover the entire program through 2013, shifting a sub-
stantial sum from agriculture in the process. 226 The total covers the first four-
teen satellites and the ground control segment as well as the operation of the
European Geostationary Overlay System (egnos), Europe's version of the U.S.
waas satellite augmentation system. Officials estimate that combined oper-
ating costs for Galileo, after completion, and egnos, declared operational for
aviation in 2011, will be about €800 million annually. 227 eu lawmakers began
drafting proposals in spring 2012 allocating €7 billion (nearly $9 billion) for
the program over the next eu budget period, 2014-20, to reach full operational
capability with thirty satellites. 228 In February 2013 the European Council
trimmed the commission's proposal by 10 percent, approving €6.3 billion for
Galileo. 229 However, the European Parliament, the third body in the eu's com-
plicated budget-making system, had not weighed in on the igure as this topic
went to production. The European Commission, which proposes and admin-
isters eu policies, estimated that satellite navigation accounted for about 7
percent of eu gross domestic product in 2009. 230 It cited independent studies
projecting €90 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits to the eu over
Galileo's first twenty years of operation. 231 As part of the commission's efforts
to boost public enthusiasm, it sponsored an art competition for schoolchildren
ages nine to eleven, with a satellite being named after the child whose draw-
ing placed first in each nation. 232