Galileo to get go ahead

Alex Terrell wrote:

(Michael Kent) wrote in message ...

The payback would be in charging a fee to access Galileo signals. This
begs the question as to why anyone would pay good money to get something
he can already get for free. Thus, at one time the ESA/EU were going to
require all receivers operating inside European borders to use Galileo
signals. I don't know if this proposal made it into the final plan.

I believe that idea of coercion got dropped. I guess some people might
be prepared to pay for security, and slightly improved accuracy, but
not enough to provide the payback.

I guess the EU could always go the WTO and to force GPS to charge, as
currently it could be seen as unfair subsidy. That wouldn't make the
EU popular, except with the US Treasury.

GPS is a passive system to the end user. There is no way to know who
is receiving the signals, so there is no way to charge them for it.
Any such WTO ruling would be impossible to carry out.

But it would set a very interesting precendent. If providing a service
via government that competes with a for-profit service anywhere else in
the world is in violation of WTO rules, then other government services
such as health care would also be in violation. Logically speaking,
the WTO could then rule that Canada's national health care system is
an unfair subsidy, depriving cross-border American hospitals their
due customers.

Imagine the possibilities!

Mike

-----
Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
St. Peters, MO

(Michael Kent) wrote in message ...
Alex Terrell wrote:

(Michael Kent) wrote in message ...

The payback would be in charging a fee to access Galileo signals. This
begs the question as to why anyone would pay good money to get something
he can already get for free. Thus, at one time the ESA/EU were going to
require all receivers operating inside European borders to use Galileo
signals. I don't know if this proposal made it into the final plan.

I believe that idea of coercion got dropped. I guess some people might
be prepared to pay for security, and slightly improved accuracy, but
not enough to provide the payback.

I guess the EU could always go the WTO and to force GPS to charge, as
currently it could be seen as unfair subsidy. That wouldn't make the
EU popular, except with the US Treasury.

GPS is a passive system to the end user. There is no way to know who
is receiving the signals, so there is no way to charge them for it.
Any such WTO ruling would be impossible to carry out.

But it would set a very interesting precendent. If providing a service
via government that competes with a for-profit service anywhere else in
the world is in violation of WTO rules, then other government services
such as health care would also be in violation. Logically speaking,
the WTO could then rule that Canada's national health care system is
an unfair subsidy, depriving cross-border American hospitals their
due customers.

Imagine the possibilities!

Where would one stop? The Army is state subsidised unfair competition
to a private defence force? I guess the key issue is are you damaging
a private competitor by state subsidies, and in that case National
Health Services and State Schools are unfair competition.

Makes you realise we live in a strange world.


Mike

-----
Michael Kent Apple II Forever!!
St. Peters, MO