NovAtel Inc. Receives Contract for Additional WAAS-GII Receivers

    Business Editors/High-Tech Editors

    CALGARY, Alberta--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 2005--NovAtel Inc. (NASDAQ: NGPS), a precise positioning technology company, announced today that an order for additional Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) receivers (WAAS-GII) was received from Raytheon Company in support of the US WAAS Final Operational Capability (FOC) program. NovAtel anticipates shipping the WAAS-GII receivers in the first half of 2005.

    NovAtel has been working with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Raytheon Company for the past two years to engineer and produce this new generation of key WAAS ground network receivers under a contract from Raytheon Company, first announced by NovAtel on November 5, 2003. Eighty-three WAAS-GII receivers have already been delivered to Raytheon, and are being fielded to expand the existing ground network in Alaska, Canada and Mexico. The new contract award for the additional receivers will be used to further extend this network. NovAtel estimates the value of this recent WAAS-GII contract award to be approximately US $650,000.

    According to Tony Murfin, NovAtel's VP Business Development, "With this new contract award from Raytheon, NovAtel continues to be recognized as the premier supplier of GPS ground reference receivers to national satellite-based augmentation systems like the US FAA WAAS program."

    The FAA's WAAS uses a system of widely dispersed ground stations to provide integrity continuity, availability and improved accuracy to the Global Positioning System (GPS) Standard Positioning System (SPS) navigation signal. The system of precisely surveyed ground reference stations positioned across the conterminous US, as well as Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, is used to collect GPS satellite data. Using this information, WAAS generates signal error correction and integrity messages and then broadcasts these messages via Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites to GPS receivers onboard aircraft. WAAS will support both en-route and vertical guidance (down to a 250 foot decision height) phases of flight for users with certified WAAS avionics. WAAS is also being used extensively in other applications requiring improved accuracy without a local base station, such as agriculture, GIS (Geographic Information Systems) and for marine use.

    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 prospects for additional WAAS related projects, 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. Tony Murfin (403) 295-4512 OR NovAtel Inc. Sonia Ross Investor Contact (403) 295-4532 Website: www.novatel.com

KEYWORD: NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL CANADA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKETING AGREEMENTS SOURCE: NOVATEL INC.

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