Official U.S. government information about the
Global Positioning System (GPS) and related topics
Selective Availability
GPS accuracy errors before and after deactivation of SA
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Selective Availability (SA) was an intentional degradation of public GPS signals implemented for national security reasons.
In May 2000, at the direction of President Bill Clinton, the U.S government discontinued its use of Selective Availability in order to make GPS more responsive to civil and commercial users worldwide.
The United States has no intent to ever use Selective Availability again.
In September 2007, the U.S. government announced its decision to procure the future generation of GPS satellites, known as GPS III, without the SA feature. Doing this will make the policy decision of 2000 permanent and eliminate a source of uncertainty in GPS performance that had been of concern to civil GPS users worldwide.
Information About the September 2007 Decision
- White House Press Statement (archives.gov)
- Department of Defense News Release (bts.gov)
- Announcement by the Secretary of Transportation to ICAO Assembly
Information Released in 2001 and 2003
Information About the May 2000 Decision
- Frequently Asked Questions about Selective Availability
- Statement by the President (archives.gov)
- White House Fact Sheet (archives.gov)
- Statement by the Secretary of Commerce
- Examples of Civilian Benefits from Discontinuing Selective Availability
- Transcript of White House Press Conference Featuring Remarks by OSTP, DOD, DOT, and DOC (archives.gov)
- Announcement by the NASA Administrator at GNSS 2000 Conference
- Data from the First Week Without Selective Availability
