As of Dec. 21, 2015, the Beidou Navigation and Positioning System has begun providing users in Guangdong province with highly accurate positioning and navigation services. According to Guangdong’s Department of Land and Resources, services began after the system passed testing conducted by a group of scientists headed by Ning Jinsheng of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

China owns the intellectual property rights for this system. The accurate receivers at base stations and the core software of the data processing center were all created by Chinese developers, said Ning.

With the upgraded system, users can enjoy the integrated services of the Beidou navigation system, Global Positioning System (GPS) and GLONASS Navigation System, rather than relying on the GPS only. This upgraded system offers centimeter-level or even millimeter-level positioning accuracy for geographic industry experts, and provides general users with location accuracy of about one meter.