A blind man has developed a free satellite navigation system for the visually impaired that can guide them around any city in Britain by giving them instructions on their mobile phone.

The technology, similar to that used by in-car satnav devices, can be used to locate buildings, bus stops, tube stations, cashpoints and taxi ranks as well as navigating streets.

Monty Lilburn, 33, from Glasgow, who is blind, created the mapping software as an alternative to conventional GPS devices.

His system, Loadstone, can be downloaded free of charge from the internet and has won plaudits from Nokia, the mobile phone company, and the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

Blind and partially sighted people are able to navigate by wearing a GPS transmitter, roughly the size of a matchbox, which pinpoints their position and communicates with the mobile phone via Bluetooth radio technology.

When the co-ordinates or postcode of the desired destination are entered, the phone “speaks” directions to the user.Instructions are given, including the distance needed to travel before taking a turn, and a series of beeps indicates when the destination has been reached.

The system uses information from sources such as Traveline, a partnership of transport operators and local authorities, which provided GPS co-ordinates for every bus stop, tube station and ferry terminal in Britain.

However, the software will not replace a guide dog or a white stick, because it is unable to detect obstacles.

The system, which is used in conjunction with the new generation of digital phone, is expected to become hugely popular.

There are 2m people in Britain who are visually impaired and some 37m worldwide.

Lilburn’s invention will be officially unveiled in Edinburgh next week as part of an international technology seminar.

“It gives people much greater freedom and best of all it’s relatively inexpensive,” says Lilburn. “When you’re in a taxi, for example, you can be confident that you’re being taken on the shortest route.”

Alison Long, of the RNIB, said: “This software goes a long way to providing some people with the independence they so desperately want. The fact that it’s been developed by blind people for blind people makes it particularly special.”

Mark Palmer, a consultant with User Vision, an Edinburgh-based IT consultancy, which will showcase Lilburn’s technology, said: “This has the potential to change a blind person’s life.”

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