Aptella has announced it will provide free access to its AllDayRTK high accuracy positioning services for volunteers and organisations engaged in bushfire and flood recovery across Australia. The initiative is designed to support emergency response and recovery work in regions where extreme weather events disrupt power, communications, and permanent GNSS reference stations.
Natural disasters frequently compromise fixed base station networks, creating accuracy gaps at the very moment when reliable positioning is most critical. Surveying damaged infrastructure, mapping affected areas, coordinating logistics, and restoring utilities all depend on centimeter level location data. When traditional RTK infrastructure goes offline, response teams are often forced to fall back on lower accuracy positioning that slows operations and increases risk.
Synthetic Base Station technology maintains accuracy during outages
To address this vulnerability, AllDayRTK uses a Synthetic Base Station system that generates a virtual reference network independent of individual physical base stations. Instead of relying on a single local GNSS site, the system models corrections across a wider network, allowing high accuracy positioning to continue even when nearby bases are offline due to power loss or connectivity issues.
From an operational perspective, this approach significantly improves resilience. Emergency mapping crews can continue working without waiting for infrastructure repairs. Surveyors assessing roads, bridges, and flood defenses can maintain consistent accuracy across large areas. Volunteer organisations can coordinate assets and personnel with confidence, even in regions where communications are degraded.
Impact on disaster response and recovery operations
Providing free access removes a key barrier for volunteer groups and non profit organisations that often operate under tight budgets during disaster response. High accuracy GNSS improves decision making by reducing uncertainty in damage assessments and recovery planning. Faster, more accurate data collection directly translates into shorter recovery timelines and safer working conditions.
From a broader industry standpoint, Aptella’s move highlights an important shift in GNSS services toward resilience rather than just peak accuracy. Synthetic reference networks reduce single points of failure and demonstrate how positioning infrastructure can be adapted for crisis scenarios. As climate driven extreme weather events increase in frequency, this model is likely to influence how future RTK networks are designed and deployed.
Leadership perspective on supporting front line responders
Aptella CEO Greg Macklin emphasized that the company sees reliable positioning as an essential tool for recovery teams working under extreme conditions. By ensuring continuity of service when physical infrastructure is compromised, the initiative aims to give responders practical tools to rebuild communities more quickly and safely.
About Aptella
Aptella is an Australia based geospatial technology company specializing in positioning, automation, and spatial data solutions across surveying, construction, utilities, and infrastructure sectors. The company supports thousands of professional users nationwide and operates one of Australia’s largest commercial GNSS correction networks through its AllDayRTK service. Aptella combines hardware, software, and cloud based positioning services to deliver high accuracy solutions for both everyday operations and critical response scenarios.
Source: aptella.com
