Aileen Ryan: The FCC Must Protect America’s Supply Chains Running on RFID

Most of us never think twice about how products arrive at store shelves, how online orders reach our doorsteps, or how lifesaving medications are stocked and ready when we need them most. But these everyday conveniences and, at times, critical needs rely on an invisible but essential technology: RAIN RFID.

Behind the scenes of America’s retail stores, warehouses, transportation systems, and hospitals, RAIN RFID enables the tracking and authentication of billions of items. This technology powers real-time inventory systems, accelerates fulfillment, ensures supply chain integrity, and helps prevent theft and loss. RAIN RFID facilitates billions of dollars of economic activity within the U.S. each year.

More than 80 billion items have been tagged with RAIN RFID in the United States alone, strengthening operational efficiency, improving public health outcomes, and enhancing supply chain resilience across industries. This progress depends on consistent access to the globally harmonized 902–928 MHz frequency band — a foundation that is now potentially at risk.

A petition by NextNav currently pending before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposes to realign this band to support a terrestrial Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) system to complement the Global Positioning System (GPS). To date, the FCC has neither accepted nor rejected the petition. Instead, it appropriately launched a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) to examine a range of potential solutions for enhancing PNT capabilities.

While advancing PNT is an important national goal, it is critical that the FCC fully evaluate alternative solutions rather than moving forward with the specific realignment proposed in the NextNav petition. The NextNav proposal would cause tremendous economic harm by disrupting existing uses of the band, particularly RAIN RFID systems.  Current analysis suggests that the proposed realignment would likely result in significant interference with existing RAIN RFID operations, introducing new vulnerabilities into industries that rely on real-time visibility to accurately manage inventory (or products) throughout the supply chain.

The impacts of the NextNav proposal would be serious. In healthcare, RAIN RFID helps hospitals track pharmaceuticals, surgical equipment, and critical supplies with precision. In 2023 alone, more than 600 U.S. hospitals deployed over 50 million RFID tags to manage anesthesia medications, ensuring accurate stocking, reducing the risk of medication shortages, and helping prevent the loss, diversion, or misuse of controlled substances. RFID also safeguards the handling of temperature-sensitive drugs where failures can directly impact patient health. Disruptions to these systems would increase challenges for already stressed healthcare systems.

In retail, logistics, and manufacturing, RAIN RFID not only improves inventory management and supports frictionless digital commerce but also serves as a critical tool against organized retail crime and cargo theft, threats that cost U.S. businesses billions each year. RFID enhances security by enabling rapid identification of missing goods, monitoring supply chain movements in real-time, and deterring theft. Undermining this infrastructure would leave high-value supply chains more vulnerable, precisely when securing goods in transit has never been more important.

The FCC’s decisions regarding spectrum management have far-reaching consequences. In this case, careful stewardship is needed to ensure that the advancement of new services do not undermine critical systems already supporting economic and public-sector performance. Strengthening PNT capabilities and preserving RAIN RFID infrastructure are both important objectives — and both must be achieved thoughtfully. There are ways to advance terrestrial PNT capabilities without undermining a technology that is already deeply embedded in the fabric of the U.S. economy. Put simply, implementing these capabilities should not come at the expense of the economic benefits that a thriving technological ecosystem like RAIN RFID brings to the American people.

RAIN RFID is not an optional convenience. It is a foundational component of modern supply chains and public services. Protecting it is not just about preserving existing efficiencies. It is about maintaining the security and reliability that Americans depend on every day.

Aileen Ryan is President and CEO of the RAIN Alliance, a global consortium of companies working together to create a smarter, more sustainable world by using RAIN RFID technology to connect trillions of everyday items across their entire lifecycle, simply and cost-effectively. This Expert Opinion is Exclusive to Broadband Breakfast.

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