NextNav Fires Back at Critics of Its Spectrum Plan
The proposal has faced opposition from spectrum-sharing advocates and federal agencies.
Jericho Casper
WASHINGTON, September 24, 2024 – Geolocation company NextNav is standing firm on its proposal to create a nationwide terrestrial backup for GPS, arguing that its plan is the only practical solution to meet growing national needs.
In its latest comments to the Federal Communications Commission on Friday, the company framed its proposed terrestrial positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) system as critical to national security, referencing Pentagon documents that highlight the need for GPS alternatives.
“The events that have unfolded over the last year in Ukraine have shown the need to accelerate the fielding of new technologies like GPS alternatives and other forms of satellite communications,” Department of Defense CIO John Sherman said in March 2023, as referenced in NextNav’s reply comments.
A significant portion of NextNav’s reply was dedicated to overcoming concerns about potential interference in the 900 MegaHertz (MHz) band. The proposal has faced opposition from consumer advocacy groups, unlicensed spectrum users, and federal agencies, including the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Transportation.
To counter these concerns, NextNav cited the Communications Act’s established spectrum hierarchy, asserting that as a primary licensee, it should take precedence over unlicensed users. The geolocation company warned that rejecting its plan based on concerns from lower-tier unlicensed users would undermine the statutory framework and grant these users disproportionate influence.
NextNav, based in Reston, Va., emphasized its ongoing discussions with incumbent users of the band, including railroad and tolling operators. It also claimed to be working on joint testing to address concerns over potential interference, which may ease some of the objections raised by the NTIA and transportation agencies.
NextNav also offered more technical details supporting the argument that its system was compatible with unlicensed devices in the lower 900 MHz band. It pointed out that unlicensed devices, by nature, must be resilient to interference from higher-tier users.
In its rebuttal, NextNav criticized several of its opponents for providing only "generalizations and selective storytelling" without sufficient technical data to back up their claims. It called for more meaningful, technical engineering analyses to assess compatibility between its system and unlicensed users, suggesting that some concerns have been overstated.
