IT suppliers are wanted to help deliver a global positioning service providing readings which are accurate up to the nearest centimetre
The Ordnance Survey is looking for suppliers involved in geographic information IT to develop global positioning services to help improve the accuracy of data from orbiting satellites.
The UK mapping agency is developing services based on its network of 80 global positioning stations. The network, known as OS Net, currently helps Ordnance Survey field staff get more detailed and accurate recordings for their data collection work.
The service is to be made publicly available through a tier of "partner organisations", the agency said on 24 October, 2005.
It is looking to work with application service providers in the geographic information industry as well as companies involved in GPS hardware, software and services.
"We aim to license partners who have appropriate levels of expertise and resources to derive added value from OS Net for their customers," said Ordnance Survey's director of data collection and management, Neil Ackroyd. "We want all GPS users to be able to access a range of correction services from these partners."
Typically, GPS readings are accurate to about 10m, but OS Net aims to make data more precise.
Ordnance Survey base stations are linked to a server hub at the agency's Southampton headquarters. When staff dial in to the hub they relay their approximate location and the server delivers the GPS data to get accurate readings of between 1m and 1cm.
The agency is aiming the service at a range of users from surveyors and engineers to construction companies and utilities.
