Britain’s first commercial network RTK
Ordnance Survey’s Partner Programme is a world renowned commercial alliance with a membership of over 500 organisations. Leica Geosystems entered the programme in 2005 to offer Britain’s first commercial RTK network, SmartNet. SmartNet offers an RTK and DGPS correction service that uses signals from Ordnance Survey’s network of base stations, OS Net, combined with Leica Geosystems’ own base stations, to give the surveying industry a new level of productivity, reliability and accuracy using GPS.

Continued growth
Four years on and the SmartNet service has grown both in technical capability and usability, and is fast becoming the default GNSS (GPS and GLONASS) network RTK in Great Britain with over 1000 users. The most significant advancement has been the upgrade of SmartNet and OSNet to include GLONASS satellite data at no extra cost to the user, thanks to the Ordnance Survey enhancement programme in which all GPS-only base stations have been replaced with Leica Geosystems GRX1200 GG Pro receivers.

Enhanced user services
From the user’s perspective, the new SmartNet online portal has made significant advancements in ease of access and real-time displays. The service now includes free 1-30 second RINEX downloads, a SmartRINEX service to create simulated reference stations for post processing, and real-time SMS alerts for network status updates whilst in the field. The success of SmartNet continues to grow beyond Great Britain as the service is currently being developed in Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Canada, USA and Australia.

‘We have seen the service grow enormously since it was launched in 2006, they now have over 1000 users. The success of Leica Geosystems is largely down to the fact that they make the overall customer experience key to their success….Over the past few years they have constantly improved their service both technically and commercially meeting the needs of their customers,’ commented Mark Salter, Head of Partners and Strategic Alliance at Ordnance Survey.

Steve Winter, Strategic development Manager at Ordnance Survey states: ‘Leica Geosystems were the 1st partner organisation to use OSNet infrastructure, one of the world’s foremost providers of innovative solutions for surveying, mapping and monitoring of our real world space. SmartNet offers full back up servers, system downtime is never an option. Their staff are truly customer focused, this is evident when you walk through the front door of their company or when you attend one of their seminars. It’s their high retention rates of existing users and licence holders that’s paramount to the business’ success. This demonstrates the true value of the service and the overall quality of the product.

Winter continues: ‘I’m really pleased Leica Geosystems were one of the finalists for the award it really demonstrates their commitment to providing their customers with a high end service and partnering with Ordnance Survey to provide a total value added solution.’

David Price, Managing Director, Leica Geosystems Ltd states: 'Winning this award is a true milestone for SmartNet and represents the culmination of hard work, ongoing investment and commitment in offering our customers the best in class, value for money solution. SmartNet has received more awards than any other solution in the market and we are honoured once again to be recognised by Ordnance Survey with this achievement.’