NextNav, SIA Still at Odds on GPS Backup

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17, 2025 – NextNav and a security industry trade group are still at odds over the geolocation company’s proposal to operate a nationwide GPS backup.

The Security Industry Association met last week with Federal Communications Commission staff, including advisers to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Olivia Trusty, to present a study that it said showed NextNav’s proposed system would interfere with alarm systems and other devices. The group has opposed NextNav's plan before.

NextNav’s plan would call for a reorganization of the lower 900 MegaHertz (MHz) band, which comprises 902-928 MHz. The company, a significant holder of licenses in the shared band, would under its plan get 15 megahertz to support a terrestrial geolocation network and 5G broadband. Other stakeholders generally agree that some kind of GPS backup is necessary, but many have expressed concerns that unlicensed devices in the band could struggle to coexist with a higher-power 5G network.

“This amount of interference would simply be unacceptable due to the severe disruption it would have on the user experience and radio performance,” Michael McGinley, a senior engineer at the consulting firm SIA commissioned for the study, said in a statement. “The interference would be a direct result of the incompatibilities between NextNav’s high-power cellular network and the low-power, radio frequency devices currently operating in the band.”

NextNav, which has fiercely defended its proposal from critics, fired back Monday.

“We have identified significant errors in the SIA-sponsored study that undermine its validity. Its 5G network assumptions are hidden and appear to be specifically invented to create the appearance of interference,” John Kim, NextNav’s senior vice president of technology development, said in a statement. “The filing does not specifically examine the devices actually used by the security industry and therefore cannot show any impact to those devices. It also fails to consider current features that enable coexistence across technologies in this band. These flaws are among the many examples we look forward to fully addressing in the record.”

Kim said the company was still confident it could introduce 5G operations in the band without interfering with current users. It has maintained the posture consistently as toll operators, utility companies, and other users of the band have urged the FCC not to pursue its proposal.

NextNav came to the FCC with its idea more than a year ago, and is eager for the FCC to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) and move its plan forward. 

“The Commission should give this filing no weight,” NextNav said Friday of a critical filing from an RFID manufacturer, “and proceed with issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) to advance 5G-based 3D PNT in the Lower 900 MHz band.”