Norway has signed a Cooperation Agreement to host 2 Galileo ground stations in exchange for supplying some niche technology.
Under the Agreement, Norwegian industry will be allowed to supply some niche technologies for Galileo - and Norway will be more actively involved in the institutions and committees that participate to the governance of the programme.
Norway will also contribute about €70 million to the programme.
The agreement was signed by the EC's Enterprise DG and the Norwegian ambassador to the EU.
The Commission will be able to install 2 ground stations for Galileo in Norway - one on the island of Svalbard and one on Norwegian Antarctic Territory. Norway will protect the Galileo radio frequencies from disruption and interference and protect the ground facilities from intrusion.
Norway had already contributed technically and financially to the development phase of Galileo through its membership of the European Space Agency (ESA).
In a recently much reduced programme, Galileo will start operating in 2014 with an initial constellation of only 18 satellites, rather than 30. This will allow the provision of 3 preliminary services: namely the:
- Open Service (OS) for normal navigation applications.
- Search-And-Rescue (SAR) service.
- encrypted Public Regulated Service (PRS) for use by the military and government authorities.