Telespazio will lead the deployment of a new Galileo Information Centre (GIC) in Latin America

18 March 2021

Telespazio Ibérica, a subsidiary of Telespazio – a joint venture between Leonardo (67%) and Thales (33%), is the leader of the consortium in charge of running the new Galileo Information Centre (GIC) for Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. The Centre, located in Mexico City and with training facilities in Querétaro (Mexico), will be officially launched at the end of March.

Telespazio Ibérica will run the GIC as leader of a consortium composed of European and local industrial and institutional partners such as Everis, Enaire, Geotecnologías, and important universities such as the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

The Centre is co-financed by the Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) of the European Commission for 36 months and enlarges the ecosystem of Galileo Information Centres joining the two other Centres located in Chile and Brazil, active since November 2019. 

This Centre contributes to the European Commission’s space outreach to promote the EU Space Programme and foster its market uptake in Latin America. It will contribute to improving the visibility of European Satellite Navigation in the region and will help promote cooperation on Galileo and EGNOS between the EU space ecosystem and actors from the region, at different levels. 

In details, the team led by Telespazio Ibérica will build up valuable insights on the local GNSS markets, monitoring the local and regional satellite navigation initiatives and key stakeholders, to understand their specificities and needs and the market potential for EGNSS, providing new opportunities for the EU space ecosystem in the region. The Centre will provide communication, promotion and training activities specifically adapted to regional particularities.

The consortium members have sound experience in EGNSS system and applications development and a strategic local presence in the region, which are valuable assets to promote Galileo and EGNOS in a 177 million-population area with largely untapped market potential on space.