Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OPPO India to strengthen the research and development of the NavIC messaging service to provide a convenient and user-friendly platform. This MoU will pave the way for future collaborations between ISRO and OPPO India to develop indigenous solutions by incorporating the NavIC short messaging feature in the smartphones released by OPPO India.
NavIC system provides regional navigation services covering the Indian mainland and an area up to 1500 kilometres beyond the Indian mainland. In addition to its primary function of providing positioning navigating and timimng (PNT) services, NavIC is also capable of broadcasting short messages. This messaging service is mainly used for broadcasting safety-of-life alerts in areas with poor or no communication, particularly in the oceans.
The MoU will enable ISRO and OPPO India to exchange technical information of NavIC messaging services so as to build rapid, ready to use, end to end application-specific solutions by integrating NavIC messaging service with the mobile handset platform keeping in mind the need of Indian users. This MoU further reiterates OPPO India’s commitment towards India and its vision towards atmanirbhar bharat.
Commenting on this collaboration, Tasleem Arif, vice president, India research and development head, OPPO India, said, “We are excited to collaborate with ISRO to strengthen the NavIC application. Under our latest MoU, we will support ISRO with our industry-leading research and development capabilities to provide a seamless experience to the users of NavIC application. In line with our vision towards make in India, OPPO will invest in further scaling the product with its competitive and experienced research and development team. To benefit our users and the government, OPPO will continue to create a positive impact in the society through our innovation and technology expertise.”
Meanwhile, Dr. K Sivan, secretary, Department of Space, chairman, ISRO, appreciated the efforts of OPPO, India in scaling NavIC application through their innovative research and development initiatives. He also urged OPPO India to include NavIC in all their upcoming products.
