The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded a contract to McLean, Va.-based Iridium Communications IRDM 3.93%↑ through its Complementary Positioning, Navigation and Timing (CPNT) Action Plan to deploy PNT services across the U.S., marking a step forward in the department’s long-standing effort to bolster resilience beyond the Global Positioning System.
Iridium will work with T-Mobile TMUS -2.59%↓ to activate the solution across 90 additional 5G network sites and bring its alternative PNT signal—1,000 times stronger than GPS—to bear for timing and synchronization. The move comes as DOT, which is the U.S. government’s civil lead for PNT, and its consulting partners have flagged the nation’s reliance on GPS as a vulnerability and begun serious consideration of terrestrial and satellite alternatives.
“It is essential for the U.S. to strengthen the resilience of our 5G wireless networks and other critical infrastructure that relies on PNT,” said Michael O’Connor, executive vice president of PNT at Iridium, in a statement.
Iridium emphasizes that its low-Earth orbit PNT service can deliver sub-100-nanosecond timing accuracy and is robust inside buildings with no outdoor antenna required. In addition, T-Mobile will also perform nominal and adverse user equipment exercises at its testing range. Iridium says the indoor location, which includes the wireless infrastructure, provides “an ideal setting for DOT, Iridium, and T-Mobile to observe and record results.”
The DOT’s broader CPNT initiative was launched to evaluate mature, commercially available technologies that can support or replace GPS for civil infrastructure, partly in response to rising reports of jamming and spoofing incidents globally—including estimates of about 1,000 daily disruptions. With 5G, transportation systems and emergency services increasingly tied to high-precision timing, the push for alternative PNT sources has taken on new urgency.
By directing industry players to deploy complement-or-alternative PNT systems now, the department is signaling a shift in strategy from contingency planning to active deployment. Analysts say the development could accelerate the commercial ecosystem for resilient PNT services and prompt broader adoption across sectors reliant on precise timing and positioning
 Action Plan to deploy PNT services across the U.S., marking a step forward in the department’s long-standing effort to bolster resilience beyond the Global Positioning System.){kind=link}