Beidou navigation system begins global operations

China's Beidou Navigation Satellite System has started providing global services, and the system is scheduled to become complete around 2020, the program's head said on Thursday.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing on Beidou's development, Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office, said the primary system's construction of Beidou's third-generation network has finished, enabling the space-based network to provide reliable global positioning, navigation and timing services with high accuracy.

"This marks Beidou's entry into a 'global era' from its 'regional era'," he said.