ISRO helps chipmaker Qualcomm for enabling Indian GPS, NavIC, in smartphones

Bengaluru: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it has assisted chipmaker Qualcomm in enabling navigation with the Indian constellation (NavIC) capability in their Snapdragon mobile chipset platforms.

The space agency said in a statement that these chipsets are being released by Qualcomm and this would help accelerate the adoption of NavIC by smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

“The OEMs can now release any new models for Indian market which are NavIC enabled, thus eventually making NavIC as a standard feature in the upcoming handsets, applications, processors, etc. It will also enhance the geolocation capabilities of smartphones within the coverage region of NavIC,” said ISRO in the statement.


ET reported early this month that Indian space agency received approval to use NaVIC, the country’s own version of GPS.

Qualcomm recently included NaVIC support to its new chipsets that would be sold to smartphone makers.

India has a fleet of nine navigation satellites as part of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System and the country plans to launch another navigation satellite with a homegrown atomic clock — a key instrument that improves accuracy.

Besides, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is likely to release two-three mid-market handsets with the NaVIC receiver system later this year.