If you are over the age of, say, 15, then you probably remember that there was a time when instantaneous access to your (or a friend’s) location was difficult if not impossible. Did we get by somehow? Yes, of course we did. Are things better now? Yes, they certainly are. Last weekend I drove my daughter and her friend to a concert at the stadium in Philadelphia (Lincoln Financial Field). It was a sold out show and the stadium holds 50,000 people. I had no idea where I was going to be able to park when the show was over 4 hours later (I’ve never seen so many limos, nor so many double and triple-parked cars in my life…). Nevertheless, with a friend-finder app on our smart phones, my daughter was able to navigate the couple of blocks to my location with no difficulty whatsoever.

Is it pretty much a no-brainer that GPS is worth the investment of the billions of dollars it took to design, develop, field and operate? Most folks would probably say yes. However, quantifying the GPS return-on-investment (ROI) is also helpful. Furthermore, quantifying GPS’ impact on the economy is helpful in protecting the spectrum allocated to it. As reported in InsideGNSS by Dee Ann Divis, a recent study showed that GPS contributed something in the range of $37 to $74 billion dollars in 2013 alone. The size of the range is, admittedly, quite large but the authors of the study have also made a strong point that the estimate is conservative and that the actual impact is larger.

Given the fact that GPS cost about $12 billion to deploy initially and costs less than $1 billion per year to operate, the ROI is nothing short of incredible.

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