16
The FCC faces a spectrum balancing act: strengthen GPS resilience with out disrupting a thriving 900 MHz unlicensed ecosystem powering crucial IoT, sensible infrastructure, and billions in financial worth throughout the U.S. Olivier Beaujard at Semtech explains how.
The 902–928 MHz band is among the most efficient items of wi-fi spectrum in the US. It powers lots of of hundreds of thousands of gadgets that U.S. residents and U.S. economic system depend on on daily basis – sensible utility meters, residence safety sensors, provide chain RFID tags, agricultural displays, and LoRaWAN IoT networks connecting cities, factories, militaries, and farms.
The FCC now has a transparent alternative to get spectrum coverage proper: strengthen GPS resilience for the nation whereas preserving the unlicensed ecosystem that has delivered huge financial and societal worth. The trade is engaged, Congress is listening and the regulatory course of is working because it ought to.
What NextNav is proposing
Since April 2024, NextNav has been asking the FCC for a 15 MHz nationwide license within the decrease 900 MHz band – spectrum at present shared freely below unlicensed (Half 15) guidelines. The corporate claims it could construct a terrestrial 5G-based Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) community as a backup to GPS.
GPS resilience is a official nationwide precedence. The U.S. does want credible options to satellite-based navigation. The query the FCC should reply will not be whether or not to pursue that objective, however how to take action with out pointless disruption to infrastructure that already serves hundreds of thousands of Individuals.
A band that’s already working laborious
The decrease 900 MHz band will not be empty spectrum ready to be allotted. It’s a working basis for industries throughout the economic system.
LoRaWAN connects crucial infrastructure throughout sensible cities and provide chains. These are usually not hypothetical figures – they mirror actual, deployed infrastructure constructed below steady and well-established spectrum guidelines. The LoRa Alliance represents tens of hundreds of thousands of deployed LoRaWAN gadgets, projected to develop to lots of of hundreds of thousands by 2029.
For instance, the Edison Electrical Institute estimates that changing affected sensible utility meters would value ratepayers over $100 billion. Z-Wave gadgets powering safety methods in a single in 4 American properties can be affected.
The RFID coalition argues that introducing high-power 5G operations right into a band constructed round low-power coexistence might create interference, stranded funding, and main financial hurt, together with estimated RFID substitute prices of $5.0 to $7.2 billion.
Throughout all applied sciences sharing this band – RFID, Z-Wave sensible residence gadgets, Wi-Fi HaLow, industrial sensors – the cumulative financial stake runs effectively into the tens of billions of {dollars}.
Technical image requires a greater strategy
NextNav argues its 5G community and current Half 15 gadgets can coexist. Impartial engineering evaluation raises official questions on that declare.
A research commissioned by the RAIN Alliance recognized important interference dangers that NextNav’s personal evaluation didn’t absolutely deal with – the corporate’s unique FCC submitting examined solely two of eight related interference situations.
Analysts at Public Data and the Open Expertise Institute have additional famous that NextNav’s precise PNT use case could require as little as 5% of the 15 MHz it’s requesting, suggesting the proposal goes effectively past what the technical mission calls for.
These are precisely the sorts of questions the regulatory course of exists to resolve – and the method is doing its job.
Sturdy trade and congressional alignment
The breadth of stakeholder engagement on this continuing is itself a sign. Almost 2,000 events filed feedback with the FCC to oppose NextNav proposal. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, public security advocates, utilities, retailers, and healthcare suppliers have all weighed in with a constant message: protect the Half 15 ecosystem.
In April 2026, the Home Appropriations Committee agreed on an modification to ban the FCC from utilizing funds to advance any rulemaking that will reconfigure or repurpose the 900 MHz band.
On June 4, 2026, the Home Subcommittee on Communications and Expertise held a listening to on U.S. PNT capabilities. A number of witnesses and members of Congress raised substantive considerations concerning the affect of NextNav’s proposal on constituents’ security methods, utility networks and IoT deployments. That stage of bipartisan consideration displays how a lot is at stake — and the way significantly Washington is taking the trade’s enter.
A wiser path to GPS resilience
The excellent news is that GPS backup could be achieved with out touching the decrease 900 MHz band in any respect.
Current bands – together with the 800 MHz mobile band – already help 3GPP-standardized applied sciences able to delivering terrestrial PNT providers. Lifting outdated airborne and operational restrictions in these bands might speed up GPS backup deployment sooner and with far much less disruption than transforming a closely used unlicensed band from scratch.
The FCC has opened a broader Discover of Inquiry into PNT options — that is the suitable strategy. It positions the company to guage all viable choices, validate technical claims rigorously, and arrive at an answer that serves each nationwide safety and the innovation economic system. NTIA has listed many terrestrial and area options outdoors NextNav that might function complementary GPS resolution.
The decrease 900 MHz band has flourished as a result of it was by no means captured by a single curiosity. The FCC has each cause – and powerful help from trade and Congress – to maintain it that means.
Olivier Beaujard is Senior Director answerable for the LoRa Alliance at Semtech. He’s additionally the Chair on the LoRa Alliance Board of Administrators.