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Not to rain on the parade but GPS and glonass already offer superior coverage, and chinas beidou constellation blows both of these out of the water as well. Ar

Not to rain on the parade but GPS and glonass already offer superior coverage, and chinas beidou constellation blows both of these out of the water as well. Are we looking to add QZSS to phones? Do a lot of phones already support it?

SllX 3y ago
QZSS is supplementary GNSS coverage that can service Japanese territory if it needs to. Only issue with BeiDou is it is controlled by the PRC. QZSS is already supported by at least iPhones. Someone else can check Android device compatibility.
- nimbius 3y ago
  Fascinating, I didn't know this. My "old" oneplus 7 doesn't support QZSS or BeiDou :/
  - SllX 3y ago
    There seems to be a couple of different ways Apple's written out the specs for different iPhone years under the location section, but going back to the iPhone 12 Pro it has read the following: Built-in GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou Digital compass Wi‑Fi Cellular iBeacon microlocation Officially, I think all of the non-GPS stuff isn't supposed to work inside of the United States (enforced by the vendor), but don't quote me on that as I saw someone in a different comment chain mentioning that they've received a QZSS on their phone in SoCal at some times of the day under some conditions; but I think the tact most manufacturers take (and this could be a Qualcomm thing too) is if it's out there, may as well support it in an omnivorous fashion.
    - throw0101b 3y ago
      FCC officially allowed Galileo signals to be used in the US in 2018: * https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-navigation-system https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-nav... * https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-navigation-system-0 https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-nav... Of course the actual signal was present in the US, but by not 'officially' blessing its use, the FCC reserved the right to use those frequencies for other things. By giving approval the FCC has basically agreed never to itself assign uses to the same frequencies, and folks don't have to worry about future conflicts.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
Phones have already supported QZSS for years. Maybe a decade for Nexus phones and 5 years for iPhone. The constellation is designed to help with some Japan-specific problems. Eg Glonass is optimized for polar environments, not helpful in Japan. For geopolitical reasons, Japan is also not crazy about depending on Russia/China. GPS assumes you'll usually be able to see a satellite when it's at an oblique angle, not helpful in big cities with skyscrapers where oblique birds can cause issues with multipath reflections and all-around bad signal in urban canyons. QZSS does it's best to make sure there's always a satellite above you, not off by the horizon. It plays nice with GPS and has a very precise signal similar to the FAA's WAAS )

SllX 3y ago

QZSS is supplementary GNSS coverage that can service Japanese territory if it needs to. Only issue with BeiDou is it is controlled by the PRC. QZSS is already supported by at least iPhones. Someone else can check Android device compatibility.

nimbius 3y ago
Fascinating, I didn't know this. My "old" oneplus 7 doesn't support QZSS or BeiDou :/
- SllX 3y ago
  There seems to be a couple of different ways Apple's written out the specs for different iPhone years under the location section, but going back to the iPhone 12 Pro it has read the following: Built-in GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, and BeiDou Digital compass Wi‑Fi Cellular iBeacon microlocation Officially, I think all of the non-GPS stuff isn't supposed to work inside of the United States (enforced by the vendor), but don't quote me on that as I saw someone in a different comment chain mentioning that they've received a QZSS on their phone in SoCal at some times of the day under some conditions; but I think the tact most manufacturers take (and this could be a Qualcomm thing too) is if it's out there, may as well support it in an omnivorous fashion.
  - throw0101b 3y ago
    FCC officially allowed Galileo signals to be used in the US in 2018: * https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-navigation-system https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-nav... * https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-navigation-system-0 https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-approves-galileo-global-nav... Of course the actual signal was present in the US, but by not 'officially' blessing its use, the FCC reserved the right to use those frequencies for other things. By giving approval the FCC has basically agreed never to itself assign uses to the same frequencies, and folks don't have to worry about future conflicts.

Rebelgecko 3y ago

Phones have already supported QZSS for years. Maybe a decade for Nexus phones and 5 years for iPhone. The constellation is designed to help with some Japan-specific problems. Eg Glonass is optimized for polar environments, not helpful in Japan. For geopolitical reasons, Japan is also not crazy about depending on Russia/China. GPS assumes you'll usually be able to see a satellite when it's at an oblique angle, not helpful in big cities with skyscrapers where oblique birds can cause issues with multipath reflections and all-around bad signal in urban canyons. QZSS does it's best to make sure there's always a satellite above you, not off by the horizon. It plays nice with GPS and has a very precise signal similar to the FAA's WAAS )