Companies and organizations jockeying to have their location technology included…
So far, more than 150 companies and industry organizations made comments pertaining to the Federal Communications Commission’s Notice of Inquiry examining technologies complementing, or supplementing, the U.S. Global Positioning System.
So what’s happening now that the May filing deadline has passed? Companies are meeting with FCC officials to plead their choice of location technology in the hopes it will be selected as a GPS complement.
NextNav NN 0.00%↑, which has a number of positive and negative comments posted through the FCC’s Electronic Comment Filing System, met with the agency’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez’ legal counsel.
NextNav told Wireless Telecommunications Bureau officials that the company’s 5G-based PNT solution, NextGen, can be deployed rapidly through several concurrent steps, and standardized through 3GPP process for specifying new 5G bands. NextNav said “with swift Commission action, NextNav’s NextGen solution could be deployed in the current Administration.”
The examination process comes after the FCC ended public comments in September 2024 on NextNav’s petition to reallocate the lower 900 MHz spectrum for its proposed PNT service and 5G broadband.
Magnetic Positioning Gets FCC Consideration
Escondido, Calif.-based Astra Navigation has asked the FCC to consider its technology as a non-spectrum-reliant alternative to GPS. This technology, which Astra Navigation touts as American-made, works by translating the Earth’s magnetic fields into navigational data.
The company, which met with FCC wireless officials late last month, says its M-GPS technology works indoors and outdoors as a standalone localization system. Astra Navigation says the technology is a natural complement to legacy GPS and other navigation data sources.
