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Study finds that a GPS outage would cost $1 billion per day:
Since becoming fully operational in 1995, Global Positioning System technology has become widely adopted in the United States and abroad. The concept of satellite-based navigation has become so essential that other world powers, including China, Russia, the European Union, India, and Japan, have all started building their own regional or global systems.
Now, one of the most comprehensive studies on the subject has assessed the value of this GPS technology to the US economy and examined what effect a 30-day outage would have—whether it's due to a severe space weather event or "nefarious activity by a bad actor." The study was sponsored by the US government's National Institutes of Standards and Technology and performed by a North Carolina-based research organization named RTI International.
[...] In the case of some adverse event leading to a widespread outage, the study estimates that the loss of GPS service would have a $1 billion per-day impact, although the authors acknowledge this is at best a rough estimate. It would likely be higher during the planting season of April and May, when farmers are highly reliant on GPS technology for information about their fields.
[...] "GPS came along at a time of significant evolution in the telecom sector and played a critical role in the digitization of telecom infrastructure and the advent of wireless technology," the study states. "Wireless technology continues to evolve in ways that increase its reliance on highly precise timing, which in turn increases reliance on GPS. Multiple technological trends—from autonomous cars to the internet of things—will be stretching wireless technology to new limits in the coming years."
The study is likely to increase public calls for improved safety and security of the US GPS system, which the Air Force continues to modernize with its new fleet of GPS III satellites. The first of these new satellites, offering positioning and timing information with three times better accuracy and heightened anti-jamming capabilities, launched on a Falcon 9 rocket in December.
That's about $275,000 per minute or $11,500 per second.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ledow on Monday June 17 2019, @02:03PM
This is true.
But if we rely on it, whether or not it's "essential", then there is a cost involved in it not working, or not being reliable. A loss of investment, slower ways to do things, less accuracy, etc. etc.
It's not that all of a sudden a $1bn bill lands on our doorstep if we turn it off... but all the little things that are "helped" by having GPS (timing, location, etc.) are suddenly more inconvenient, which costs time and therefore money.
We can go back to using pen, paper, clockwork and astrolabes. It doesn't mean that it wouldn't cost billions to do so. Just shipping alone would be so much more lost that it would cost you a fortune just in the fuel to power them.
Worldwide, $1bn is not a lot. That's 1/7th of a dollar a day per person. Even at minimum wage, that's a tiny amount of time and inconvenience. And yet not having GPS could easily add ten minutes to your daily commute just through traffic control alone and "cost" you more than that. It's not blown out of proportion, it's not the apocalypse, but it would cost to be without it - at least until some equivalent alternative took over.