Ireland gets 100% road mapping coverage

GPS Ireland, Ireland’s leading GPS consultancy firm, has confirmed that Irish motorists are to benefit from 100% road coverage mapping - the most detailed mapping yet available for Ireland. NAVTEQ, a world leader in premium-quality digital map data who are already providing Irish mapping will release new detail which will have 100% coverage of all Public Roads in Ireland on 27th of March next. This is hugely significant as all minor roads and housing estates in the country (even outside cities) will be included.

At last, Ireland will finally have the standard of mapping that is enjoyed by all our European neighbours. With 100% road coverage, SatNav systems will for the first time become more utilised by logistics and delivery companies as well as private users.

According to Gary Delaney, GPS Consultant with GPS Ireland, this is a very significant step forward for Ireland contributing to more efficient use of our road systems. However, there is still no statutory support by the Government to ensure that any changes Government agencies make to road layouts - speeds or 1 way systems - are passed to NAVTEQ. It will therefore be necessary for NAVTEQ to resurvey on a regular basis to find out if our roads layouts have changed. To support NAVTEQ, GPS Ireland through its GPS forum (http://forums.gpsireland.ie) is encouraging road users to log changes identified to our roads. These changes will be forwarded to NAVTEQ to help them keep their reccords up to date.

In addition, Gary Delaney adds that it will take some time for the new data to get into finished products and we would expect to see these products available over the summer period.

Anyone thinking of investing in a SatNav systems should be aware that it is only products with NAVTEQ map detail that are of any value and have a future in Ireland. Other systems which use detail from other map providers are not advancing as far as coverage is concerned and are stuck with main roads for Ireland only - so is not of any great value for the time being anyhow.