The hottest news in the GPS marketplace right now for contractors is surprisingly not a technology--rather, it seems to be a business model. Allow me to explain.

Recently, I was speaking with Steve Plamondon, machine control sales manager at Bunce Positioning in Massachusetts, about the state of automated machine control. He mentioned that one of the largest forces having an impact on machine control usage today is the growth and accessibility of subscription-based GPS networks. The idea is that contractors can get right to work and put their equipment investment to use pushing dirt without establishing their own base station control on the project. They simply receive post-corrected coordinates directly from the network they subscribe to.

To learn more about this concept, I spoke with some of the larger providers of this service. I found that the most interesting aspect of subscription networks may not be so much the technology behind the effort as the way business is evolving around them.

Private Networks

Enlarge this picture This map of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia shows the coverage offered by Loyola Spatial Systems’ RTK-Net subscription network.

Loyola Spatial Systems (www.leica.loyola.com), a Leica Geosystems (www.leica-geosystems.com) reseller with offices in Virginia Beach, Hampton and Richmond, Virginia, has built a GPS subscription network that covers most of Virginia and parts of Maryland. I spoke with Brian Daniel, director for Loyola, to learn more about the network.

“We believe we have the largest private network owned by a single entity,” Daniel said. “We have 25 reference stations in Virginia and Maryland, with new stations going up in West Virginia. Forty-nine companies have subscribed to the network, with [more than] a hundred Leica rovers connected. We are trying to add one or two new stations per month throughout our sales territory.”

The business model behind this is that it is built specifically for Leica Geosystems/Loyola customers. The network was built to help support and grow Leica’s sales business and to provide a service to its customers. Loyola’s system is trademarked as “RTK-Net” and uses Leica’s SpiderNET software.

The map to the left shows the status of Loyola’s network as of November 2006. RTK-Net provides single baseline corrections and modeled network corrections based on the master-auxiliary concept, which has been accepted as the basis of the RTCM V3.1 network messages. This is the first industry standard for network RTK as accepted by the Radio Technical Commission for Martime Services (RTCM, www.rtcm.org).

Comparing Loyola’s private model to a cooperative arrangement where different entities own the stations with one party responsible for management, Daniel said, “I see difficulties with that model because as technologies change it could be that some of the participating parties may or may not upgrade to the new technologies. This will very quickly create an incompatible mix of technologies incapable of delivering the best product to the end user. By owning the entire network, we can rapidly respond to technology upgrades, and we are the sole point of responsibility for the network.”

Daniel indicated that the biggest advantage of this network for GPS machine control customers is that contractors don’t need to purchase a base station for each construction site. This allows them to freely move machines from site to site. Further, customers can move their rovers around just as easily. “The system is on and is monitored 24/7,” Daniel said, noting that the GPS stations used by the network are either part of the National Geodetic Survey (NGS) Continously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) or are currently being submitted for approval by NGS.

Loyola recommends that those who want to connect to the system use Leica machine control or rover equipment. RTK-Net supports radio, Verizon Wireless CDMA, Cingular or T-Mobile GSM communications.

With machine control just starting to take off, contractors are increasingly tackling certain tasks in-house. One of these tasks is to establish control on the jobsite by taking advantage of the GPS access provided by subscription networks. According to Daniel, there is an additional advantage to using a network such as Loyola’s for project sites that are adjacent to each other. “RTK-Net provides a common geodetic reference frame that ensures all control is relative to each other. This eliminates common errors seen when establishing multiple, temporary base stations on each jobsite,” he said.

“The geospatial infrastructure is not changing the way we survey, it has already changed the way we survey,” Daniel concluded.

Cooperative Networks

Enlarge this picture Each reference station is represented by an antenna graphic in this map of Lengemann’s L-Net network in Florida.

Another business model that has developed for GPS subscription services is the cooperative network. Lengemann of Florida (www.lengemann.us) has developed a partner-based GPS network using Topcon (www.topconmc.com) equipment. According to Shawn Greer, director of survey sales, the business reason behind Lengemann’s development of the network was to add value to equipment sales. Customers who purchase equipment from Lengemann can access the network and participate as partners or purchase any of the flexible subscription plans. Lengemann has also found that one of the side benefits of the network is the use of the static data from the reference stations. Other market sectors such as photogrammetrists want to join the network and use the data in aerial photographs.

In contrast to Loyola’s network, Lengemann’s “L-Net” system is a cooperative agreement where outside companies own the receivers, but Lengemann retains ownership of the network, servers and software. When asked how this cooperative arrangement would work as technological advances occurred, Greer said that Lengemann had discussed upfront with its partners that upgrades to Topcon’s G3 technology for GPS, GLONASS and Galileo reception would be necessary at some point.

The L-Net system has 50 reference stations in Florida and one in Georgia. Greer believes that L-Net is the largest Topcon network in the United States. Lengemann has built its network to this size in just 16 months and is not finished yet--the plan is to incorporate 70 stations in L-Net. Lengemann’s systems are dual-constellation capable of accessing both GPS and GLONASS signals. The software used on the server is Topcon’s TopNet and runs in a redundant fashion to assure total uptime.

“There is a huge impact on 3D/GPS machine control customers when using this network since they don’t need to buy base stations, and they can simultaneously use it for their rovers for checking grades and doing as-built surveys. They simply download their terrain models and control file, make a connection and go,” Greer said.

Enlarge this picture In this map of Keystone Precision Instrument’s KeyNetGPS coverage, active areas are shown in blue and areas under construction are shown in yellow.

I also researched a cooperative network located in the Eastern United States, which was developed by Keystone Precision Instruments (www.keynetgps.com). Emerson Bornman, PLS, manager of KeyNetGPS for Keystone, explained that his company’s network is a Trimble (www.trimble.com) system operated as a cooperative. Keystone has a large service area that ranges from parts of West Virginia and Virginia, Eastern Pennsylvania and into New York and all of New England. KeyNetGPS is currently operational in Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. Additions to the network are under construction in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and Virginia. Keystone currently has more than 30 stations in the network, some of which are owned by Keystone. The system is growing rapidly according to Bornman, who said there are 10 more stations either currently on order or in the process of being set up. The software used on the servers is Trimble’s GPSNet.

The business model in this system is that anyone can join the network for a fee; it doesn’t matter whether they are Trimble equipment users. “We are finding some 20 percent of our subscribers are contractors who are using the service on the survey side of construction,” Bornman said. “I believe that it is still appropriate to have a local base station onsite for machine control equipment. If a VRS [Virtual Reference Station] is used, then each piece of earthmoving equipment requires an Internet connection. This subjects them to dropped calls and potential missing data. Therefore, you are best served by a local base station.”

The KeyNetGPS network is a cooperative model and uses the term “participants” for its partners. Keystone shares the revenue from the subscriptions with those participants.

Models for Success

What I have described in this column is how three private organizations are building GPS subscription networks for a variety of business reasons. The overriding reason for creating these technological marvels seems to be to enhance the customer’s productivity. A secondary reason might be that they enhance sales opportunities where the equipment purchased now has added value and capability for less cost.

I felt that I got an honest explanation from all of the discussions I had with the developers of these networks that profit was arguably the lowest priority for creating them. Indeed, one is free, others are nominally charged and some command market rates depending on a variety of conditions, but none seemed to have been developed for the sole reason of making a profit on the subscriptions. This very fact makes these subscription GPS networks one of the best overall values in the marketplace today!

Editor’s Note: Although only a few network providers were interviewed for this article, there are numerous others offering this service across the country. Interested parties should check with their local dealers or product manufacturers to learn more about subscription services provided in their area.