Trimble Business Brisk With GPS Contract Awards
Trimble Navigation, a supplier of a family of GPS products to the maritime and other industries, has been the recipient of many contracts of late. In April, Trimble signed a $1.3 million contract with the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to provide GPS Integrity Monitoring Stations for use in the USCG's Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS). The USCG's DGPS system is designed to provide navigation information for coastal areas, harbors and waterways of the U.S., Puerto Rico, and most of Alaska and Hawaii free of charge. Trimble's 4000IM MSK Integrity Monitors will verify that the system is broadcasting correct and accurate navigation messages to recreational boaters, commercial shipping and fishing fleets, workboats, and cruise ships. In addition, surveyors and mappers, environmental consultants, police, and emergency response vehicles with ready GPS equipment will be capable of receiving the USCG's broadcast signal.
More recently, Trimble was awarded a contract with the USCG to provide 326 NT200CG GPS receivers for use in the USCG's Aids to Navigation (ATON) vessels. Differential GPS positioning information from Trimble's NT200CG will be used to place and maintain more than 50,000 buoys, day markers and lights throughout the U.S. coastal waters. Trimble's NT200CG — a custom unit based on Trimble's NT200D — allows USCG vessels to quickly and precisely position these navigational aides.
Other Business Aside from its contracts with the USCG, Trimble has negotiated several other cooperative agreements within the past year.
In March, the company announced its $24 million deal with American Mobile Satellite Corp. (AMSC), a contract which called for Trimble to supply its Galaxy/GPS land mobile satellite communications terminals for use in AMSC's Mobile Messaging Service Network. Delivery of the contract started in May, and will continue into 1996.
At the end of 1994 Trimble signed on with the Finnish Board of Navigation (FBoN) to provide reference station and integrity monitors for the radio beacon- based DGPS marine navigation systems of Finland and Estonia. The FBoN planned to install Trimble's 4000MSK DGPS Reference Station and 4000 IM MSK Integrity Monitors along the coasts of Finland and Estonia. At the time, this announcement brought to 14 the number of countries that had chosen Trimble's DGPS Reference Stations and Integrity Monitors for accurate positioning and coastal navigation.
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