No timeline set for embedding NavIC in India-made phones: Govt

Embedding NavIC support will incur additional costs as the present chipsets are tuned to support frequency band, which is suitable for GPS and GLONASS

The Ministry of Electronics and IT has said no timeline has been fixed for mobile companies to make smartphones compatible with the indigenously-developed navigation system NavIC (Navigation with Indian constellation).

"Though the Ministry officials held a meeting with mobile phone makers, it was just consultative and the issue is under discussion with all stakeholders," the Ministry tweeted.

The government's statement came following media reports about a meeting between the government and manufacturers, where the Ministry has proposed to embed support for the indigenously developed navigation system NavIC in all Made-in-India smartphones.

Some of the mobile players and chipset companies present in the meeting held in the first week of September said that embedding NavIC support will incur additional costs as the present chipsets are tuned to support frequency band, which is suitable for US navigation system GPS and Russian navigation system GLONASS.

Mobile device makers have informed the government that they will be able to implement NavIC, the navigation system developed by Isro, on new 5G mobile devices by January 1, 2025.

NavIC has been regarded as an alternative to the popular GPS (Global Positioning System). According to the government, NavIC not only reduces the dependence on foreign systems including GPS, it also provides more accurate domestic navigation. NavIC is fully under the control of the Government of India.

Presently, there are four global systems viz., GPS from the US, GLONASS from Russia, Galileo from the European Union and BeiDou from China. In addition, there are two regional systems viz., NavIC from India and QZSS from Japan.