Archive 2004

NovAtel Inc. Ships New Generation WAAS-GII Receivers and Signal Generators

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	INVESTOR CONTACT:	Sonia Ross (403) 295-4532
	AVIATION CONTACT:	Tony Murfin (403) 295-4512

    

(Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 21, 2004) - NovAtel Inc. (NASDAQ: NGPS), a precise positioning technology company, announced today> the start of a new era in Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) receivers and L1/L5 Signal Generators, as the first units were shipped in March 2004 to Raytheon Company for the US WAAS Final Operational Capability (FOC) program and the Geostationary Communications & Control Segment (GCCS), respectively.

NovAtel has been working with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Raytheon Company for the last several months to engineer and produce this new generation of key WAAS ground network and Ground Uplink System (GUS) equipment, under the terms of the letter contracts from Raytheon Company that were announced by NovAtel on November 5, 2003. The WAAS-GII receiver will be initially fielded to expand the existing ground network in Alaska, Canada and Mexico. NovAtel estimates the total value of the WAAS-GII contract to be up to US $3.0 million, and of the L1/L5 Signal Generator to be up to US $1.6 million. The L1/L5 Signal Generator will be initially used in the development of the GUS for the new WAAS Geostationary Satellite.

The FAA’s WAAS uses a system of widely dispersed ground stations to provide integrity continuity, availability and improved accuracy to the Global Positioning System (GPS) Standard Positioning System (SPS) navigation signal. The system of precisely surveyed ground reference stations positioned across the conterminous US, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, are utilized to collect GPS satellite data. Using this information, WAAS generates signal error correction and integrity messages and then broadcasts these messages via GEO satellites to receivers onboard aircraft. WAAS will support both en-route and vertical guidance (down to a 250 foot decision height) phases of flight for users with certified WAAS avionics. The Wide Area Augmentation System is also being used extensively in other applications requiring improved accuracy without a local base station, such as agriculture, GIS and marine use.

The FAA also determined that additional Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite services for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) were needed to provide the necessary coverage, availability and improved continuity of service to the aviation user. A contract was then awarded to Lockheed Martin and its team members Raytheon and Boeing for additional WAAS GEO satellites, with Raytheon receiving a subcontract for the ground based signal generator subsystem. NovAtel is building the Signal Generator for this WAAS ground system.

About NovAtel Inc.
NovAtel designs, markets and sells high-precision GPS and other positioning components and sub-systems used in a wide variety of commercial applications principally in the aviation, geomatics (surveying and mapping), mining, precision agriculture, marine and defence industries. NovAtel’s solutions combine hardware, such as receivers and antennas, with software to enable its customers to fully integrate the Company’s high-precision GPS technology into their respective products and systems. The Company is focused on supplying core high-precision positioning technology to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and system integrators who build systems for various end market applications. For more information, visit www.novatel.com.

Certain statements in this news release, including financial guidance, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on management’s expectations regarding NovAtel’s future growth, results of operations, performance, future capital and other expenditures (including the amount, nature and sources of funding thereof), competitive advantages, business prospects and opportunities. Statements in this news release about the Company’s future plans and intentions, results, outlook, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements or other future events constitute forward-looking statements. Wherever possible, words such as ‘‘anticipate’’, ‘‘believe’’, ‘‘expect’’, ‘‘may’’, ‘‘could’’, ‘‘will’’, ‘‘potential’’, ‘‘intend’’, ‘‘estimate’’, ‘‘should’’, ‘‘plan’’, ‘‘predict’’ or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect management’s current beliefs and assumptions and are based on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements involve significant known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including operating results of subsidiaries and joint ventures, establishing and maintaining effective distribution channels, certification and market acceptance of NovAtel’s new products, impact and timing of large orders, credit risks of customers and joint ventures, financing of joint ventures, pricing pressures in the market and other competitive factors, maintaining technological leadership, timing of revenue recognition in connection with certain contracts, the ability to maintain supply of products from subcontract manufacturers, the procurement of components to build products, product defects, U.S. dollar to Canadian dollar exchange rate fluctuations, the impact of industry consolidations, vulnerability to general economic, market and business conditions, competition, environmental and other regulatory changes, actions by governmental authorities, the availability of capital markets, reliance on key personnel, uninsured and underinsured losses and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of NovAtel. These factors should be considered carefully and undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, NovAtel cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and NovAtel assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances.