re: Banana Wars & Sat-Nav Wars (Galileo)
Excerpts from "A Week in Wireless #45" by "Mike at Mobile Communications"
>> We have had the banana wars, we're in the middle of the steel wars, next up could be the sat-nav wars. This week, the EU backed the E3.6bn Galileo satellite navigation system, which is designed to compete with the US's GPS system and may have a future role to play in 3G networks. Nobody likes relinquishing a monopoly, least of all the Pentagon, and so the old trope whenever Europeans try something strategic-"problems for the NATO alliance" -has been given an airing.
Galileo the astronomer spent much of his life defending his science against the Roman Church. In Jacques Chirac's rhetoric, for the Vatican, read Washington. Galileo is a liberation from the vassal-like status that stems from technological dependence on Uncle Sam who, he might claim, already uses the Echelon global surveillance network on behalf of US commercial interests. On the other hand, Galileo could just be a vainglorious and expensive attempt to mandate via industrial policy a proprietary European technology that merely duplicates existing services. Sound familiar? <<
- Eric - |
