RTK Network Map and Coverage Finder
Point One Navigation operates an RTK correction network across the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Use the state finder below to check coverage where you operate and compare Point One against the public and commercial correction services available in that state. Connect any RTCM 3.x receiver to a single mount point and the network assigns your rover to the appropriate reference station automatically.
Check RTK Coverage in Your State
Precision without the hassle
Say goodbye to time-consuming RTK setup. Just connect your RTK-compatible receiver to a single mount point, and our network intelligently assigns you to the nearest base station for corrections, all without any manual configuration.
FAQs
What is the difference between RTK and Network RTK?
RTK is the positioning technique. It corrects GNSS errors in real time by comparing your rover’s satellite observations against those from a reference station at a precisely known location. There are two ways to source those corrections.
Single-baseline RTK connects your rover directly to the nearest physical base station. The correction chain is simple and fully traceable, and any performance degradation is visible as longer fix times or float solutions.
Network RTK interpolates observations from several surrounding stations to synthesize a Virtual Reference Station at your rover’s location. That adds redundancy, so a single station going offline does not interrupt your operation.
Both are OSR approaches and both deliver 1 to 3 cm accuracy on a dense network, so which one you use is entirely your choice. Point One offers both through the same network. You can run either one, and move to the other if your requirements change or if you want an alternative available. For more on how Network RTK works and why station density governs real-world accuracy more than the correction method you pick, see Demystifying Network RTK: Why Density Matters.
What is an RTK network map, and how do I read one?
An RTK network map shows the physical locations of a provider’s reference stations and the coverage they support. When you evaluate one, look at the spacing between stations rather than the total shaded area. Accuracy degrades roughly 1 to 1.5 cm for every 10 km of added distance from the nearest station, so a map showing a large region with few stations behind it will perform differently from a tightly spaced one.
Is Point One available in my state?
Point One operates reference stations across all 50 US states plus Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. Use the state finder above to see coverage detail and a comparison against other services operating in that state, or view the full coverage map for current station locations.
Can I use Point One corrections with a receiver I already own?
Yes. The network is receiver-agnostic. Any RTK-capable receiver supporting RTCM 3.x and standard NTRIP will work, including u-blox, Septentrio, Trimble, NovAtel, Quectel, and Emlid hardware. There is no proprietary receiver requirement. Credentials and setup documentation are available at app.pointonenav.com.
Do I need my own base station if I use an RTK network?
No. A correction network removes the need to deploy, survey, and maintain your own reference station. A DIY base station still makes sense for contained single-site work within about 10 km, for air-gapped environments, and for very low-frequency use. For a full cost comparison including setup labor and maintenance, see Is Building Your Own RTK Worth It?
How is NTRIP related to RTK corrections?
NTRIP (Networked Transport of RTCM via Internet Protocol) is the transport protocol that delivers RTK corrections over the internet. RTK is the positioning technique; NTRIP is how the correction data reaches your receiver. NTRIP remains the dominant standard and is supported by virtually every RTK receiver, which is why “NTRIP provider” and “RTK correction provider” usually describe the same thing. Point One also offers an authenticated, encrypted connection option for teams that want transport-level security beyond standard NTRIP. See What is NTRIP? for the full architecture.
How far can I be from a base station and still get centimeter accuracy?
Single-baseline RTK performance typically begins degrading beyond 35 to 50 km from the nearest station, with accuracy falling roughly 1 to 1.5 cm per additional 10 km. Network RTK extends usable range by interpolating a Virtual Reference Station near your rover, which keeps the effective baseline short. Either way, the density of the underlying network is the limiting factor.
Which applications does RTK positioning support?
Robotics and autonomous systems are the largest growth area: ground robots, delivery platforms, autonomous mowers, and agricultural robots all depend on centimeter accuracy for path following and obstacle avoidance. RTK is also standard in automotive ADAS and lane-level navigation, precision agriculture guidance and variable-rate application, drone mapping, and machine control. In GNSS-degraded environments such as urban canyons and tunnels, RTK is typically paired with an inertial navigation system so dead reckoning can bridge outages. See loose vs. tight coupling for how that integration works.
What is a Virtual Reference Station (VRS)?
A Virtual Reference Station is how Network RTK delivers corrections. Instead of using one nearby physical base station, a server takes observations from several surrounding stations at once and interpolates them to estimate what a base station at your rover’s exact location would observe. It streams that synthesized data to your rover, which treats it like a nearby physical base.
This is different from single-baseline RTK, where your rover connects directly to the one nearest physical station. Both are OSR (Observation Space Representation) approaches, and both deliver 1 to 3 cm accuracy when the underlying network is dense enough. The correction method you pick matters less than the inter-station spacing behind it, because no model can recover atmospheric detail that was never sampled. We covered that in depth in Demystifying Network RTK: Why Density Matters.
What is the difference between True RTK, Network RTK, and Virtual RTK?
Point One offers three correction products through the same network. True RTK connects your rover to the nearest physical base station and delivers 1 to 3 cm accuracy with an immediate fix. Network RTK interpolates a Virtual Reference Station from multiple surrounding stations, delivering the same 1 to 3 cm accuracy with convergence in seconds and added redundancy. Virtual RTK runs SSR modeling on the backend but delivers standard RTCM output, giving approximately 10 cm accuracy with roughly 30 second convergence across continental coverage. All three work with any dual-band RTK receiver.
| True RTK | Network RTK | Virtual RTK | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Method | Single-baseline, nearest physical station | VRS interpolated from multiple stations | SSR modeled on the backend, delivered as RTCM |
| Format | OSR | OSR | SSR backend, OSR to rover |
| Accuracy | 1 to 3 cm | 1 to 3 cm | Approximately 10 cm |
| Convergence | Immediate | Seconds | Approximately 30 seconds |
| Receiver | Any dual-band RTK receiver | Any dual-band RTK receiver | Any dual-band RTK receiver |
| Best for | Maximum precision, traceable corrections | Maximum precision, redundancy | Automotive, IoT, continental fleets |
How do I compare RTK correction providers?
Coverage maps alone will not tell you how a network performs. Five factors matter most:
- Inter-station spacing, not total coverage area. Ask for station locations, not shaded regions.
- Excursion rates at the 99th percentile, not median accuracy. Tail behavior is what breaks production systems.
- Whether the provider owns and operates its stations or aggregates third-party and crowd-sourced infrastructure.
- Receiver compatibility, specifically RTCM 3.x and NTRIP 1.0 and 2.0 support across mixed hardware.
- Programmatic provisioning, since manually configuring hundreds of devices does not scale.
For the full evaluation framework, including the questions to ask each provider and a side-by-side comparison of the commercial, government, and community networks operating in the US and globally, see our guide to NTRIP service providers.
What are GPS correction methods?
There are four main approaches to correcting GNSS errors, and they differ in where the correction is computed and how wide an area it covers.
- DGNSS (Differential GNSS) corrects code-phase measurements using a nearby reference station. Accuracy lands around 0.5 to 1 meter, with no convergence delay. Suited to asset tracking, fleet management, and GIS work.
- RTK (Real-Time Kinematic) corrects carrier-phase measurements against one or more reference stations at precisely known locations. It delivers 1 to 3 cm accuracy with a fix in seconds, which is why it is the standard for robotics, autonomous systems, machine control, and precision agriculture. It requires reference station infrastructure within range.
- PPP (Precise Point Positioning) uses no local reference stations at all. It applies global satellite orbit and clock products, which makes it available anywhere on Earth, including offshore. The tradeoff is convergence time, typically 15 to 30 minutes or more, and decimeter-level rather than centimeter-level accuracy.
- PPP-RTK, also called SSR (State Space Representation), adds regional ionospheric and tropospheric models to PPP’s orbit and clock data. This brings convergence down to seconds and accuracy to the decimeter range while still covering continental areas from far fewer stations. It scales efficiently because one broadcast stream serves every user regardless of location.
The underlying distinction is how corrections are represented. OSR (Observation Space Representation) sends composite corrections computed for your specific location, which works with virtually any RTK receiver but requires a unique stream per user. SSR sends the individual error components and lets the rover reconstruct its own correction, which scales to millions of devices but traditionally required specialized receiver firmware. Some services now run SSR modeling on the backend and deliver standard RTCM output, giving you SSR’s coverage without the firmware requirement.
For a full side-by-side comparison including convergence times and receiver requirements, see GNSS Correction Methods Compared. For how corrections are generated and delivered, see RTK Corrections: What They Are and How They Work.
One note on terminology: “GPS corrections” is common usage, but GPS is one constellation among four. Modern correction services work across GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, and BeiDou, so “GNSS corrections” is the accurate term unless you are specifically referring to the US constellation. See What is RTK? for more on multi-constellation positioning.