NovAtel Inc. Components Used in Leica Geosystems' New SmartStation- W

    Business Editors

    CALGARY, Alberta & HEERBRUGG, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 15, 2005--NovAtel Inc. (NASDAQ: NGPS), a precise positioning technology company, announced that they have achieved another major goal of their cooperative agreement with Leica Geosystems (Heerbrugg, Switzerland, SWX: LGSN) with the announcement of Leica Geosystems' new SmartStation, the world's first high performance total station (TPS) with integrated GPS. The companies have been working on the joint development of new Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technologies since signing a co-operative agreement in 2002.

    The Leica SmartStation utilizes NovAtel's precise, reliable GPS engine and antenna components, which are based on NovAtel's OEM4 and GPS-702 technology, in a new configuration offering simultaneous terrestrial and satellite surveying from a common instrument. According to Leica's news release of January 31, 2005, "With this innovation, Leica Geosystems has reached another milestone in the success story of the Leica System 1200 product family. The revolutionary surveying system that combines TPS and GPS in one instrument can reduce the time required for set up and orientation by up to 80%. This increases the user's productivity and profits."

    "Leica's introduction of the Leica SmartStation is particularly gratifying as it marks the second product resulting from our strategic alliance, further demonstrating that the partnership between NovAtel and Leica allows both companies to focus on their core competencies in order to develop precise positioning products that deliver advanced GPS performance," said Jon Ladd, NovAtel President and CEO. "We wish Leica every success with this product, and look forward to continuing our partnership with such a world-class company."

    Leica Geosystems and NovAtel Inc. executed a strategic cooperation agreement in February 28, 2002 with the objective of common development of new technologies for global positioning systems (GPS) and its advancement in the high-accuracy segment. The first product to be developed under this agreement was Leica's System 1200, launched in February 2004, which uses a NovAtel precise positioning engine and geodetic quality antenna designed to the specification of Leica Geosystems.

    About Leica Geosystems

    Leica Geosystems develops, manufactures and markets systems for surveying, mapping, modeling and position determination. With its surveying sensors and systems for the acquisition and processing of spatial data, the company is among the world leaders in surveying and data capturing for GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Around the globe, customers implement system approaches from Leica Geosystems' major measurement and documentation solutions for terrestrial, land and cadastral surveying, environmental remote sensing, engineering and mechanical engineering, building and construction machine guidance, GIS creation and updating, industrial measurement techniques and opto-electronic defense equipment.

    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 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 those about the Company's future partnership with Leica, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts but rather on management's current expectations regarding NovAtel's future business prospects and opportunities. 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. 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 certification and market acceptance of NovAtel's new products, impact and timing of large orders, pricing pressures in the market and other competitive factors, maintaining technological leadership, and other factors described in our Form 20-F and other SEC filings, 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. 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.

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CONTACT: NovAtel Inc. Graham Purves (403) 295-4964 OR NovAtel Inc. Sonia Ross (403) 295-4532

KEYWORD: NEW YORK SWITZERLAND INTERNATIONAL CANADA EUROPE INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS PRODUCT SOURCE: NOVATEL INC.

Copyright Business Wire 2005