Russia negotiates for Glonass satellite placement: Vietnam gains another option.

Historically, Vietnam has primarily used US GPS satellites. Now that Russia is negotiating to introduce Glonass, users will benefit from having a competing product.

Associate Professor Dr. Doan Minh Chung, Director of the Institute of Space Technology, made this statement in response to information that the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is negotiating with four countries – Vietnam, Cuba, Nicaragua, and China – to establish a signal correction station for the Glonass satellite navigation system.

A good opportunity

Glonass is a Russian Global Positioning System (GPS) designed for both civilian and military purposes. This system allows users to determine their location in real time.

Glonass, along with GPS, are two global satellite-based navigation systems used to help determine the precise location of an object on Earth.

In particular, future Glonass systems will provide positioning results with an error margin of only millimeters.

According to Dr. Doan Minh Chung, this is a good opportunity for users in Vietnam to compare and choose. Users in Vietnam now have the means to use additional global positioning systems.

"The world now has many positioning satellites. For a long time, we have used the 24 US GPS satellites to determine coordinates in many fields (navigation, science for locating signal measurement points, etc.) with receivers that allow us to determine our position to see where we intend to conduct experiments on Earth. Or, for example, if a storm or flood hits a country, we can take satellite images of that area to get the coordinates."

Telecommunication positioning satellites will determine this. This means that when determining a certain location on Earth, there will be a grid of coordinates. These coordinates are determined by positioning satellites.

"Many countries are now developing satellite positioning systems. In Vietnam, scientists have long been accustomed to using the US GPS system, but now with Glonass, there's another product to choose from," Associate Professor Chung said.

This means that when Glonass enters Vietnam, it will provide another product to compete with the US GPS system, and users can take advantage of the strengths of each different system.

"Consumers will benefit from having more competitive products on the market. It's even possible to develop applications from this satellite system," said Dr. Chung.

GLONASS global positioning system

Russia wants Vietnam to use Glonass satellites.

Dr. Chung also stated that the cooperation framework between the Russian Space Center and the Ministry of Science and Technology had previously mentioned the possibility of bringing Glonass to Vietnam.

"They want Vietnam to gradually use Glonass satellites for location tracking like GPS, and later possibly even integrate it into mobile phones…," Dr. Chung shared.

In his view of this collaboration, Mr. Chung believes it is a good opportunity.

"The issue is how the market will provide it, and Russia needs to cooperate with the Ministry of Information and Communications to build receiving stations in Vietnam so that Vietnamese people can gradually use Glonass simultaneously with GPS," said Dr. Chung.

According to Mr. Chung, users will soon be able to use both navigation systems simultaneously, complementing each other for more accurate positioning.

"The issue is that the Ministry of Information and Communications also needs to negotiate and cooperate with partners to sell affordable receivers like GPS so that users can use them," Dr. Chung observed.

Having visited Russia's Glonass system, Dr. Chung noted that the drawback is the device's somewhat large size, meaning it will take time to gain market share. "It requires a process; you can't force users to use it immediately," Dr. Chung said.

To use Glonass Vietnam, no additional infrastructure preparation is needed because they simply sell the equipment, and users can use it alongside their existing navigation systems.

"The important thing is that if Russia wants to invest, they must build receiving stations and provide customer service. If they find it good, they will try it; if not, they certainly won't buy it," Dr. Chung commented.

According to Dat Viet Newspaper