Swedes prefer Russian data

A SWEDISH firm has become the first known foreign company to use Russian positioning technology GLONASS, in a sign the system could become a challenger to established US rival GPS.

Sweden's Swepos, a national network of satellite reference stations which provides data for real-time positioning with metre accuracy, said GLONASS was better than GPS at northern latitudes.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's pet project, Russia has been developing GLONASS since 1976, spending the equivalent of 1.2 billion on it over the last decade.