The FCC Broadens Its Investigation of GPS Alternatives
At its public meeting on March 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) moved to broaden and deepen its investigation of options to complement and supplement U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities. The FCC approved a Notice of Inquiry (NOI) entitled “Promoting the Development of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Technologies and Solutions.” This is a positive development in IBTTA’s efforts to protect the use of lower 900 MHz spectrum for tolling and transportation.
The NOI aims to explore how the Commission might foster GPS complements and alternatives with a focus on complementary systems. The Notice seeks input on a wide variety of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technologies being advanced by broadcasters, wireless operators, satellite services, and other applications that use spectrum licensed by the FCC. The NOI aims to understand the tradeoffs among emerging PNT applications, “based on factors like performance, adoption, scale, geographic coverage, durability, cost, and commercialization,” according to the FCC.
The FCC concluded public comments in September 2024 on NextNav’s petition to reallocate the lower 900MHz system and grant an exclusive nationwide license for 15 MHz of the band to the company for its proposed PNT service and 5G broadband. The proposal would reduce the available spectrum for electronic tolling and other users by 20 percent and subject current operations to a high powered adjacent PNT system. The Commission could have issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the petition. Instead, the NOI will broaden and deepen the FCC’s understanding of the costs and benefits of all GPS options. This comprehensive and deliberative approach to fact finding suggests that industry efforts to persuade the FCC that there are better alternatives for GPS resilience may be making a difference. The NOI specifically acknowledges that there are many PNT providers and that not all of them rely on spectrum for their services.
The NOI also suggests a need for a whole-of-government approach and supports the system-of-systems federal goal for augmenting GPS resilience.
There will be a 30-day period for interested parties to provide input concluding on April 28, 2025. There will also be a 15-day review comment period which ends on May 13, 2025. This is the same schedule that accompanied the call for public comments on the original NextNav petition. IBTTA will be preparing an NOI response in collaboration with our partners and legal and regulatory advisors.
IBTTA remains committed to work closely with our members through the coalition established to ensure that the toll industry acts influentially and convincingly to protect the lower 900 MHz spectrum from potentially harmful interference from new services. The Toll Coalition includes toll operators, equipment manufacturers, system developers, and regulatory and legal advisors. This group will advance evidence of economic impacts and radio frequency interference that may affect toll system performance, revenue collection, customer service, and capital and operating costs. We will also explain likely constraints to the deployment and siting of future road pricing projects and applications.
IBTTA is also dedicated to partnering with users of the lower 900 MHz band from other industries. We seek to drive home the magnitude of negative consequences that spectrum reallocation will have on vital and productive users from government, industry, and consumers throughout America. You can learn more by visiting the IBTTA web site 900MHz resource page or by contacting IBTTA’s Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs, Mark Muriello, at [email protected].