At Least They Are No Longer Claiming They Will Be Better than GPS
David Gow
Tuesday July 10, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Artist’s impression of a Galileo GPS satellite. Picture: ESA/AFPA fresh Franco-German row over the funding of Galileo is threatening to derail the EU’s most ambitious project, the €3.6bn (£2.4bn) global positioning satellite system designed to rival the American version, a senior executive in the private sector consortium due to run the system said yesterday.
Olivier Houssin, head of the commercial and security operations of French electronics group Thales, said Europe runs the risk of being left behind in key commercial and military applications by the US, China, Russia and India… more info on this exercise in self-aggrandizement here:
I’ve written several articles (try here, here and here for some background) in the past about the overpriced, over-hyped and (in my view) totally wasteful Galileo program. I may, in fact, have been too hard on French telecom giant Alcatel (what do you call a beltway bandit in France?). I have a distinct dislike for Alcatel mainly because I formerly worked with and was a satisfied customer of innovative companies that Alcatel bought and then killed. Don’t innovate, annihilate ideas … that’s the way to protect yourself in the market.
Seems like I was losing my focus and giving too much credit to Alcatel … forgot about Thales another huge aerospace/military conglomerate whose main product is “strategic agreements” and other hooked up schemes to eliminate competition and try to control world business.
These are the advisers the European Union is relying upon. Are there no independent scientists out there? Even more important, are there no business leaders who can add two plus two and are not being paid by one of these giant conglomerates? It doesn’t add up folks, believe me.