GPS week re-numbering 6 April, 2019

The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides accurate timing information to many of our critical systems and devices.

What is the GPS Rollover?

The Global Positioning System (GPS) provides accurate timing information to many of our critical systems and devices.

The calculation is based on the number of weeks and seconds since the start of the system in January 1980, and this is translated into day, month, year, and time of day.

For technical reasons the system can only count 1024 weeks at a time before it needs to restart from 0. The first time it had to re-set was 21 August 1999; the next time it will re-set is 6 April 2019.

There will be NO impact on Iridium products (as they only use UTC time interfaces) - nor most Inmarsat products

We believe that this is low risk and unlikely to affect any recently manufactured or moderately old products. If you've got any antique products you should instigate further.

In all cases simply be aware of this date and take care around this period. Watch for unexpected effects and take appropriate precautions.

You can contact us if you have any further questions.