Recent GPS Activities in the Republic of China on Taiwan

Wang Tang, David Liu and Tai-Ping Hsiung

Abstract:	As the Full Operational Capability (FOC) of GPS is expected to be declared soon, GPS activities in the Republic of China on Taiwan are experiencing a rapid expansion, reaching all walks of life for the 21 million people on the island. Within a year most residents in Taipei, the nation’s capital, will notice that when they dial emergency number 110 the response time will be significantly reduced from what it used to be, due to the installation of GPS receivers in 620 police patrol cars. Some private companies have already adopted differential GPS technology for fleet tracking and management to increase both productivity and efficiency, and subsequently profits. Even locating mountain climbers, outfitted with a hand-held receiver, in the event of an emergency becomes a trivial task. Due to her geographic features and political problems, Taiwan faces many unique challenges. For one, Taiwan is not a member of the United Nations. Consequently, she cannot participate in most international organizations such as the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA) just to name a few. Information gathering seems to be the bottleneck in advancing this new technology. Another obstacle Taiwan faces is that she does not have formal diplomatic relationship with any developed countries, including the United States. Open official cooperations with other nations are difficult to pursue. Nevertheless, GPS has recently become a household word - frequently mentioned in the local news media. This paper is an outgrowth of work performed last spring at CAST/ITRI by ARINC, in which the first-named author provided consultation services on various aspects of GPS. The objectives of several ongoing GPS activities in the Taiwan and their corresponding status will be discussed.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 1995 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation January 18 - 20, 1995 Disneyland Hotel Anaheim, CA
Pages:	89 - 94
Cite this article:	Tang, Wang, Liu, David, Hsiung, Tai-Ping, "Recent GPS Activities in the Republic of China on Taiwan," Proceedings of the 1995 National Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Anaheim, CA, January 1995, pp. 89-94.
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