For years, authenticated satellite positioning has largely been reserved for expensive, power-hungry systems operating in defence, aviation, and other specialised sectors. Meanwhile, the devices most exposed to spoofing and signal manipulation like asset trackers, wearables, drones, and IoT sensors have largely been left without protection.
To remedy that, Dutch semiconductor company Qualinx has announced that its new QLX3Gx Series GNSS receiver now supports Galileo’s Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA). It claims to be the first ultra-low-power GNSS platform designed to provide authenticated positioning as a standard feature.
Galileo, the EU-owned Global Satellite Navigation System, is Europe’s equivalent of the US’s GPS, and it is used for timing and location across some 4 billion devices globally.
OSNMA works by adding a digital signature to navigation signals transmitted by Galileo satellites. This allows a receiver to verify that the positioning data it is receiving comes from the satellite network and has not been altered or spoofed by an attacker. Spoofing can trick receivers into reporting false positions.
Qualinx has integrated this authentication capability directly into the hardware of its ultra-low-power QLX3Gx GNSS chip, allowing small battery-powered devices to confirm the authenticity of their location data without increasing power consumption.
The move comes as concerns over GPS and GNSS spoofing continue to grow across both civilian and military environments. Interference with positioning signals has become increasingly common around conflict zones, critical infrastructure, and transportation networks, highlighting the need for trusted location data far beyond traditional defence applications.
Qualinx plans to begin mass production of the QLX3Gx in the second half of 2026. If adoption follows expectations, authenticated positioning could soon become a standard feature across millions of devices that have historically operated without any meaningful defence against spoofing.
“Authenticated positioning has for too long been out of reach for the devices that need it most,” said Qualinx CEO Tom Trill. “By building OSNMA support into the QLX3Gx at the hardware level from day one, we’re making trusted positioning the default, not a premium option, for the wearables, asset trackers, and IoT devices that make up the bulk of the GNSS market.”
The development was carried out with support from the European Union Agency for the Space Programme (EUSPA), which has been pushing wider adoption of Galileo’s security features.
“OSNMA represents one of Galileo’s most important contributions to positioning security, and our mission is to see it adopted as widely as possible,” said Florent Koné, satcom market and innovation manager at EUSPA, in a statement. “Qualinx has demonstrated that authenticated GNSS is no longer confined to high-power applications.”
As positioning data becomes increasingly important to logistics, autonomous systems, consumer electronics, and connected infrastructure, the ability to verify that location data is genuine is likely to become a baseline requirement rather than a specialised capability.
