The General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland – Trinity House, the Northern Lighthouse Board and the Commissioners of Irish Lights – operate 14 Differential Global Positioning System (GPS) reference stations which provide corrections to GPS, thereby enabling greater positional accuracy and integrity in the user’s position.

The authorities are now surveying users across a wide variety of sectors to better understand how the Differential GPS service is being used. The Differential GPS service currently provides corrections for GPS (single frequency) only, but the technology is being developed to enable corrections to be provided for all Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), should there be a requirement. The survey results will be used to establish current and future user needs.