Clinton Frees GPS Signals

President Clinton gave the go-ahead for letting boaters, motorists and hikers use a satellite-navigation system with the same pinpoint accuracy the military has long enjoyed. Clinton ordered that Monday night, the U.S. military had to stop intentionally scrambling the satellite signals used by civilians to improve the accuracy of Global Positioning System receivers tenfold. The decision is likely to be a boon to the GPS industry, which is already expected to double in the next three years, from $8 billion to more than $16 billion. Consumers who have bought GPS receivers will find that they are 10 times more accurate now that the military had to cease disruption of the signal beamed down from orbiting GPS satellites.