Selective Availability Feature Eliminated from GPS III Satellites

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.

On September 18, 2007, the government announced its decision to procure the future generation of GPS satellites (GPS III) without the SA feature. This made the policy decision of 2000 permanent.

Learn more at GPS.gov