Thales Launches New Truly Global Positioning System; SkyFix XP Offers Decimetric Levels of Accuracy with No Range Limitations from Reference Stations.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2003

Thales has launched a new generation of decimetric Differential GPS (DGPS) positioning systems, offering the oil, gas and hydrographic industries new levels of accuracy and quality of service, with no range restrictions from reference stations. SkyFix XP, available from Thales GeoSolutions, the world's premier global offshore services company, is capable of accuracies of 10cm in the horizontal and 15cm in the vertical domains, surpassing accuracies and quality standards previously experienced in the Differential GPS marketplace.

Announcing the launch of SkyFix XP, Senior-Vice President of the Thales Positioning Based Solutions Group, Stanislas Guerin said: "SkyFix XP is ideal for all offshore operations and activities, providing highly reliable and dynamic decimetric positioning accuracy anywhere in the world, with no range limitations from stations. SkyFix XP's improvement in positioning accuracy reduces costs for users by speeding up the time taken for offshore positioning activities and data processing in the oil and gas, construction and hydrographic survey industries, as well as improving the efficiency of dredging operations. Furthermore, this system will undoubtedly drive a revolution for Geographical Information Systems' (GIS) land applications."

Certainly the most accurate system available today, SkyFix XP draws on a completely new technique, known as Satellite Differential GPS (SDGPS), using the existing global network of Thales reference stations to track all satellites continuously throughout their orbit, generating reference-station-independent correction data. This fully dynamic, highly accurate and completely reliable correction information, available for any location regardless of proximity to a reference station, makes the system truly global, with no range restrictions, representing a major breakthrough for the industry.

Offering unrivalled support and better reliability of accuracy, Thales has a global infrastructure of support facilities providing services and quality control locally at the major oil fields around the world. In addition, for absolute confidence in the accuracy of SkyFix XP, Thales provides a real-time regional monitoring system supplying performance information online http://www.thales-geosolutions.com/skyfix/skyfix.cfm confirming the systems' information integrity with estimates of data accuracy, a system unsurpassed in the industry.

SkyFix XP's associated new MultiFix 4 software package builds on the high levels of quality control -- based on the UK Offshore Operators Association (UKOOA) -- and system status information previously available to operators while at the same time retaining the advantages of an uncomplicated and easy to configure user interface. Also, for reliability, MultiFix 4 may be configured with a number of automatic back-up solutions for the primary SkyFix XP calculation to provide optimum redundancy. This allows the system to switch automatically to an alternative DGPS solution such as SkyFix or SkyFix Premier if decimetric performance is not required for a particular application, providing ultimate confidence in the system.

Fully compatible with existing systems, SkyFix XP has a similar hardware platform and configuration to that of the standard SkyFix model making it easy to upgrade an existing system with the addition of a dual frequency GPS receiver and the new MultiFix 4 software. In addition, the MultiFix 4 software is compatible with most leading GPS receivers including, but not limited to, units produced by Thales Navigation.

The Thales Positioning Based Solutions Business Group (BGPBS) comprises Thales Navigation, Thales GeoSolutions, Thales Telematics and the Galileo Programme Office. With a wide range of precision positioning systems and geo-services, Thales provides complete solutions to meet commercial positioning, navigation, tracking, telematics and fleet management needs in industries and markets as diversified as oil and gas, telecommunications, transport, construction and leisure. Currently employing GPS (Global Positioning System) and GSM (Global Mobile System) technologies, Thales' strategy is to become the world leader in the development of a hardware and software platform common to all GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) applications.

Thales GeoSolutions Group Limited employs more than 2,000 people throughout its global network of operating companies. The company provides a complete range of offshore services including precise positioning, integrated geosciences, remotely operated vehicle (ROV) design, manufacture and operation, vessel and vehicle tracking, together with environmental and data management services as well as saturation and air diving operations.

Notes to Editors:

Photos illustrating this announcement are available from Dave Morrow on: [phone] or [e-mail]. Alternatively, for more information, visit the company's web site at: www.thales-geosolutions.com

SkyFix XP Technology

This next generation system uses a completely new technique to obtain accurate positioning known as Satellite Differential GPS (SDGPS), with differential corrections provided for the GPS satellite itself rather than for a specific reference station. This status is reached by tracking all satellites continuously throughout their orbit utilising a global network of reference stations which in turn identifies, isolates and measures each individual source of error, covering -- for example -- orbital changes and clock variations, providing a complete set of corrections for each GPS satellite. This correction set contains separate corrections for each individual source of satellite error and as such may be used at any location, regardless of distance to a reference station, making the system truly global with no range restrictions.

Local tropospheric and ionospheric errors are corrected and eliminated at the user end as part of the positioning calculation and by using a dual GPS frequency receiver respectively. Multi-path and receiver noise that induces error is addressed by using carrier phase observations within the XP calculation.

SkyFix XP differs greatly from traditional Differential GPS services that use the fixed location of a single reference station to measure the ranges to all GPS satellites in view. These measurements are then compared to ranges based on the reported location of the GPS satellite. The resulting difference in the observations for each GPS satellite is then transmitted as a pseudo-range correction in the RTCM SC-104 format. This technique results in a single set of satellite range corrections that include all sources of local range error, introducing a geographical range limit to the use of data from these reference stations.

SkyFix XP completely removes this range limitation, which is a very real advantage at offshore field sites set away from coastal areas.