In November 2009, a startup business called SmartNet Aus took its first steps with the provision of high-precision RTK GNSS corrections across a small area in South East Queensland. By working with third parties in the acquisition of real-time GNSS data, the aim was to reduce the proliferation of CORS sites and lower the overall cost of RTK networks.
Five years later, and thanks to strong partnerships with numerous federal and state government departments, as well as private organisations, commercial partners and network providers, SmartNet Aus is now the largest GNSS CORS service provider in Australia, with over 530 active base stations and almost 1,000 regular subscribers.
Markets & offerings
This steady growth has reflected the adoption of high-precision GNSS positioning across several markets including precision agriculture, road construction, surveying and asset management by utility and resources companies.
As the largest provider of CORS GNSS services in Australia, SmartNet Aus offers a broad range of RTK and DGPS correction services and post-processing datasets from single state through to national coverage, that they believe will satisfy your requirements.
SmartNet Aus offers RTK GNSS corrections in RTCM V2.3 and V3.1 formats over cellular NTRIP across all states supporting real-time positioning at the centimetre level. DGPS corrections in similar RTCM formats assist with decimetre level positioning, most often used by the GIS and asset mapping markets. In support of post-processing activities typically used in airborne mapping applications, it offers RINEX GNSS datasets across all stations in SmartNet Aus.
The business plan and roadmap for the next five years of SNA sees continued network expansion and densification in support of existing market segments, and new market segments. The adoption of real-time GNSS positioning across many different applications is driving the need and benefit of high-precision RTK corrections, and will continue to do so across Australia.
With a unique cooperative approach at the core of its business model, in which parties with their own existing base station can share their data streams with SmartNet Aus, the company foresees a strong continued expansion across all regions. The business model means that SmartNet Aus does not attempt to own CORS infrastructure, rather they pay royalties in return for use of the data from existing infrastructure.
For information about the various services available from SmartNet Aus, contact your local SmartNet Aus distributor or visit www.smartnetaus.com.
