Fed Govt To Use Satellite To Improve Safety

The Federal Government has begun moves to use the nation’s satellite in the orbit (NIGCOMSAT-1R) to roll out satellite based augmentation systems (A-SBAS), to improve national safety, security and productivity.

Considering the partnership between Nigeria and other international agencies, the move would also benefit some African countries.

It is spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy through the Nigeria Communications Satellite Ltd (NigComSat).

A statement from NIGCOMSAT said: “The three partners demonstrated the additional services provided by A-SBAS on July 7 and 8, by calling on the SBAS signal they have broadcast over the Africa and India Ocean

(AFI) region since September to provide the first SBAS open service in this part of the world via the NigComSat-1R satellite.”

The Managing Director/CEO of NIGCOMSAT Ltd, Dr. Abimbola Alale, said: “The demonstration in Brazzaville, Congo, ( in July) is in line with our desire to bring to the fore the numerous disruptive applications of SBAS technology utilising Precise Point Positioning (PPP) and warning alerts in digitalised economy across sectors, especially in non-aviation sectors such as maritime, rail, survey, civil engineering, oil & gas, precision agriculture, security of strategic national infrastructure, mass-market applications among others.

message via the A-SBAS signal to mobile phones, without requiring a terrestrial network. This service sends a message to the population concerned, providing information on the type of danger and instructions to be followed.

While the second demonstration of Precise Point Positioning (PPP) via satellite showed the system’s ability, also using the A-SBAS signal, to broadcast, via open access, Global Navigation Satellite System, (GNSS) corrections ensuring positioning accuracy to within centimeters across the entire African continent.

According to industry experts, this service saves resources and energy and improves productivity across a broad swath of applications, including agriculture, land and maritime transport, surveying and drone navigation.

The second demonstration consisted in broadcasting GNSS corrections based on the CNES© / Geoflex PPP technology, also via the A-SBAS signal.

These corrections demonstrated their ability to achieve centimetric accuracy over the African continent. This world first via satellite opens up vast opportunities for applications in fields such as precision agriculture, maritime and road transport, rail safety, drone navigation, mapping and land registration.

To underscore the significance of the partnership, the statement noted that a seminar was organised on July 6, 7 and 9 in Brazzaville to raise awareness of SBAS services in Africa. It was organised in conjunction with EGNOS-Africa JPO (Joint Programme Office) and was attended by about 100 national and international experts.