The first commercial RTK network for Great Britain and Ireland

Since mid January 2006 Leica Geosystems’ SmartNet service has been live and available as a broadcast correction service to subscribers via GSM or GPRS technology in Great Britain. Since then Leica Geosystems has also been adding value to the network by introducing its own GPS & GLONASS sites throughout Great Britain.  From July 2007 SmartNet can now offer an additional service for the whole of Ireland. The complete service is provided in partnership between Leica Geosystems and Ordnance Survey Great Britain (OSGB), Ireland (OSI), and Northern Ireland (OSNI).

GPS first became a viable tool for Topographic Surveys, GIS and Engineering applications in the early 1990’s, with the completion of the Navstar satellite constellation. The breakthrough to high precision solutions came with the expense of needing access to two GPS receivers; a reference and a rover. Without this configuration, accuracy is at around 10 metres, of variable quality and uncertain reliability.

Now there is a genuine breakthrough, which means that we no longer require the use of multiple GPS receivers. Announced on December 20th 2005, Great Britain has the first commercially available broadcast RTK network in the form of Leica SmartNet. The service is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week and from July 2007 is extended to cover Great Britain and Ireland. ‘Now, one receiver is all you need. Of critical importance is the continuous datum afforded by SmartNet – you can work at full precision, in OS Grid, as soon as you turn the receiver on, anywhere in the country – or work in a new or existing local grid as before.’

SmartNet is based on raw data from the OSGB, OSI & OSNI network of GPS base stations. This network comprises around 142 permanent nationally deployed GPS reference stations; however the OS networks are only commercially available via partners. Leica Geosystems have also added further value to the reference infrastructure, by providing additional GPS and GPS & GLONASS reference stations for extra satellite availability, coverage, redundancy and monitoring.

Open to all, whichever GPS you own
Since mid January 2006 Leica Geosystems’ SmartNet service is live and available as a broadcast correction service to subscribers via GSM or GPRS technology.

SmartNet is available to anyone with any make of GPS receiver that can accept RTK or DGPS corrections broadcast by GSM or GPRS from industry standard RTCM formats. So whether you own a Leica Geosystems product or another make of GPS receiver you are able to gain access to the service.

The Network
Leica SmartNet is enabled by the network of Ordnance Survey base stations in both Great Britain and Ireland, to create a high density, high redundancy network which is able to deliver corrections at the centimetre level in RTK mode or sub-metre DGPS and with raw data for post processing.

Data from each of these base stations around the country is received via the internet at a highly secure location in London Docklands. Here it is processed using Leica Geosystems GPS SpiderNet advanced network calculation software, which is also used by both Ordnance Survey Ireland & Ordnance Survey Northern Ireland. The data is then made available to subscribed users when they dial up or log in.
 
How much does it cost?

We have different annual subscription options available depending on the type of corrections you require and your intended usage.

 

GB RTK Annual Subscriptions

88363

RTK Unlimited

£2,000

88402

RTK TSA Member Unlimited

£1,750

90614

RTK Limited Access (40hrs p/m)

£1,200

88404

RTK Education Access

£750

5301401

RTK London GPS & GLONASS Only

£950

88405

RTK London GPS & GLONASS Upgrade to full GB (88363)

£1,250

88408

RTK Ireland Upgrade (requires either 88363 or 88402)

£880

 

GB DGPS Annual Subscriptions

88364

DGPS Unlimited

£750

88403

DGPS TSA Member Unlimited

£525

90615

DGPS Limited Access (40hrs p/m)

£450

 

 Ireland RTK Annual Subscriptions

88406

RTK Unlimited

£1,350

88407

RTK Limited Access (40hrs p/m)

£880

 

Ireland RTK Annual Subscriptions (euro)

88406

RTK Unlimited

€ 2,000

88407

RTK Limited Access (40hrs p/m)

€ 1,300

Special member discounts for Irish Institution of Surveyors

 

Full GB & Ireland RTK Annual Subscription

88409

RTK Unlimited Access (Great Britain & Ireland)

£2,880

 

Above prices do not include VAT.

Multiple users’ discounts available.

 

GPRS Costs for RTK users (mobile phone providers)

Typical contracts for up to 250MB

£5-25 p/m

 

Contacts

 

Leica SmartNet UK Enquires:

Leica Geosystems

Phone: +44 1908 246262

Fax:      +44 1908 234386

Email:   smart.net@leica-geosystems.com

 

Leica SmartNet Ireland Enquires:

Survey Instrument Services, Dublin.

Phone:                   +353 (0) 1 4568650
Fax:                         +353 (0) 1 4568653
Email:                    leica@sisirl.com

Web:                       http://www.sisirl.com/

 

Leica SmartNet GPS & GLONASS RTK Site options

 

·          Bristol

·          Edinburgh

·          Leeds

·          London

·          Maidstone

·          Manchester

·          Milton Keynes

·          Newcastle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GPS & GLONASS Tracking Status
 
 



 

Free RINEX downloads

As an additional service to SmartNet subscribers, there is a free of charge RINEX download facility on our SmartNet web site, once you have registered. Users have the ability to download all RINEX data that they need from OSGB, OSI & OSNI and the extra Leica Geosystems reference station sites. The web site also includes other information such as quality monitoring of each individual station, through our GNSS QC software and a unique computation service embedded with Leica Geo Office that allows your raw data to be processed on-line against the nearest reference stations.

 

What extra benefits do I get with the SmartNet service?

We believe that as a network provider the user requires other added value services over and above the corrections themselves. All subscribers therefore have access to the following services as soon as they subscribe.

 

·          Full backup systems

·          Immediate SMS text updates on the status of OSGB, OSI & OSNI stations

·          SmartNet e-news

·          SmartNet newsletters

·          SmartNet user workshops

·          SmartNet Guide sheets

·          SmartNet config sets

·          Backup config sets for GSM in case there is a problem with GPRS in the area of survey.

·          SmartNet answer phone service to dial into and get the latest SmartNet status

·          SmartNet support centre

·          Densification of the GB network with GPS & GLONASS receivers!

·          Free RINEX downloads from the SmartNet web site

·          Full network quality monitoring