NextNav Faces Continuing Questions as PNT Field Test Starts
The RAIN, LoRa, Wi-Fi, WiSUN and Z-Wave alliances asked the FCC to force NextNav to pause a field test of its 900 MHz 5G positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) network in Santa Clara County, California (see 2512110060). The commission should also amend NextNav’s experimental license to require it to provide additional information on interference and to submit periodic reports, said a filing Monday in docket 25-110.
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The alliances noted that under the license that NextNav is using, the company must “make a good faith effort to inform the ‘unlicensed device user’ community about the test, including the dates of operation, frequencies used and locations of transmitters.” NextNav has apparently taken no steps to comply with this condition, they said.
The Security Industry Association and Information Technology Industry Council also raised concerns, arguing that “NextNav has utterly failed to meaningfully address the detailed technical filings regarding the devastating impact that its proposed system in the Lower 900 MHz Band would have on billions of unlicensed devices in the band.”
Derek Johnston, NextNav's vice president of marketing and communications, fired back in an email Tuesday. The associations “chose not to participate in the FCC’s experimental licensing process, and now that the FCC has acted, they’re seeking changes to the license conditions that would obstruct NextNav’s efforts to demonstrate that a robust 5G broadband service and high-integrity 3D PNT can be delivered together and at scale using standard 5G equipment in a real-world environment.” The test is “consistent with the requirements in the FCC’s experimental license, and we have outlined a process for parties to follow if they have concerns.”
NextNav also opposed the alliances in a filing at the FCC Tuesday, calling the claims “factually incorrect, procedurally defective and legally unfounded.” The company said it’s “in full compliance” with the conditions imposed by the FCC.
Meanwhile, House Transportation Committee Chairman Sam Graves, R-Mo., and Highways Subcommittee Chairman David Rouzer, R-N.C., “strongly” urged the FCC on Tuesday to “increase its coordination” with the Department of Transportation on the agencies’ dual efforts to create a PNT network to back up U.S. GPS. DOT is “currently evaluating fourteen potential approaches to supplement and provide redundancy to the GPS system,” Graves and Rouzer said in a letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr.
“Stakeholders across a wide range of critical sectors, including critical infrastructure, highway transportation, aviation, railroads, public safety, energy, broadband, and retail have expressed serious concerns” with NextNav’s PNT proposal (see 2511210022), the GOP lawmakers told Carr. “Specifically, it has been highlighted that the NextNav PNT system could result in significant disruption to existing operations that rely on the” lower 900 MHz band. The lawmakers said they want the FCC to ensure its “PNT-related efforts are harmonized” with what DOT is considering. “Any determination regarding a primary backup PNT system must be made with a view toward national interest and must minimize the risk of economic disruption across affected sectors.”