Report Says GPS Backup Systems Could Save Billions

A new Brattle Group report says that terrestrial augmentation systems could save as much as $14.6 billion if a worldwide GPS outage occurred.  NextNav NN 4.76%↑ used the report to say its FCC proposal to reconfigure the lower 900 MHz band offers “the U.S. economy a $10.8 billion insurance policy to protect against GPS outages without taxpayer funding.”

NextNav, which offers its 3D terrestrial PNT solution in the lower 900 MHz band, also says it can save the U.S. economy $663 million each day of a global GPS satellite outage.

The report, conducted by Brattle Group economists Coleman Bazelon and Paroma Sanyal, not only discusses the economic impacts of a GPS outage, but says NextNav’s proposal will help first responders improve emergency services.

Not everyone thinks NextNav’s FCC spectrum proposal would constitute a viable GPS augmentation.  “NextNav’s proposal is not an augmentation of GPS.  It is a private attempt to replace it with inferior terrestrial transmitters and take over precious ISM band in the 900 Mhz spectrum,” said Aaron Nathan, CEO of Point One Navigation, in a LinkedIn post.  “We need more open and free communication bands, not less.”

For its part, the FCC, in its August request for comments, said it not only is seeking industry input on NextNav’s technical proposal, but “on the windfall that [NextNav] might receive as a result of its proposed spectrum swap for a new nationwide license, including the acquisition of accompanying rights as a licensee and lessor, the application of flexible use and less restrictive technical rules to this band, and how the [FCC] should address any such windfall.”