NextNav's PNT Proposal Is Hotly Contested in Comments to FCC
NextNav on Wednesday called on the FCC to move forward with an NPRM looking at its proposal for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) in the 902-928 MHz band as an alternative to GPS. Others urged the FCC to encourage multiple alternatives as a backup to GPS. Reply comments were due Wednesday on a notice of inquiry that commissioners approved 4-0 in March (see 2503270042). Numerous commenters sharply criticized the NextNav proposal.
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NextNav said its proposal “offers a near-term, market-driven path forward,” which is “unlike other solutions that will require years of additional research and development or additional dedicated federal funding for network buildout and maintenance.”
NextNav CEO Mariam Sorond urged action in an email on Wednesday. The record “clearly demonstrates that building a complement and backup to GPS is an urgent national security and public safety priority,” she wrote: “While some opponents rely on unsupported rhetoric to preserve the status quo, the Commission should not be swayed by flawed technical analysis or entrenched resistance that would delay meaningful progress toward advancing a system of systems approach to PNT resiliency.”
NextNav’s proposal “would cause harmful interference to millions of utility smart meters and [supervisory control and data acquisition] devices and other unlicensed operations in the 902-928 MHz band,” said the Utilities Technology Council. “Not only would this threaten the reliability of critical infrastructure communications systems, but it would also strand significant investments that utilities and others have made in these systems.”
The RAIN RFID Coalition noted that about a third of the more than 100 initial comments on the NOI discussed the NextNav proposal and “almost none of those comments favored NextNav’s proposal because it would be too disruptive to operations critical to this nation, and cost too much in terms of equipment replacements and damage to the economy as a whole,” the coalition said: “There is nothing so compelling or unique about NextNav’s … solution as to warrant costly disruptions to Part 15 operations, including RAIN RFID systems, on a massive nationwide scale.”
John Deere underscored the need for GPS backup but also opposed NextNav’s plan. The company noted that it offers a real-time kinematic solution using the lower 900 MHz band “to provide centimeter accuracy to our customers within a specified coverage area,” which is important to precision agriculture. “If the FCC granted NextNav’s petition and revises its rules relating to the Lower 900 MHz band then these capabilities could be significantly impacted in a negative manner and could be rendered useless in some regions in the United States.”
The Wi-Fi Alliance targeted the NextNav proposal in its reply comments, too. The lower 900 MHz Band “supports a robust ecosystem in which billions of devices coexist across a wide range of industries and applications,” it said: “NextNav’s proposal would upend these carefully balanced arrangements by creating harmful interference to incumbent operations in the Lower 900 MHz Band and potentially, operations in adjacent bands.”
NCTA slammed the NextNav plan, as well as a proposal by broadcasters urging a government-mandated transition to ATSC 3.0 to facilitate broadcast positioning system (BPS) technology. NextNav’s proposal “dismisses the value of unlicensed spectrum and would sabotage the vibrant ecosystem of entities that have deployed unlicensed services in reliance on the Lower 900 MHz band’s existing regulatory framework,” NCTA said: “To the extent the broadcast industry wishes to provide BPS, it may do so consistent with the existing market-based transition.”
SpaceX, which is owned by Elon Musk, a top adviser to President Donald Trump, emphasized the role that next-generation low earth orbit satellites could play. “A market-driven approach to PNT innovation will achieve a new level of resilience without government subsidies or rules that inadvertently tip the competitive playing field in favor of a particular operator or bespoke solution,” it said.
The Consumer Technology Association urged a “whole-of-government approach” to PNT. The “robust record” in response to the NOI “demonstrates the power of innovation unleashed, especially when government does not mandate technology or otherwise pick winners and losers,” it said. The group mentioned its concerns about the NextNav proposal, but only in a footnote.