NextNav Confirms Successful Initial Tests of Accurate 3D Position, Navigation and Timing Service Leveraging Cellular Infrastructure

NextNav, a global leader in next-generation GPS, has announced that it has successfully tested its positioning and timing solution that combines the company’s assured PNT (position, navigation and timing) TerraPoiNT system with existing LTE and 5G network signals. The test, which took place in and around San Jose, California, demonstrates how TerraPoiNT signals can be integrated with existing cellular signals to deliver accurate 3D positioning and timing information that is not reliant on conventional satellite-based GPS and GNSS signals.  

Using dedicated terrestrial transmitters and LTE/5G signals, NextNav’s system delivers accurate and reliable 3D positioning and timing information and can augment or complement GPS  in places where GPS signals may not be available. This includes indoors, urban areas, or situations where GPS signals may experience interference. Integrating TerraPoiNT with LTE and 5G signals provides a rapid and cost-effective approach to scaling resilient PNT solutions in GPS-denied environments. 

“Whether its utilities, banks, data centers, transportation, or emergency services, critical infrastructure today is reliant on GPS for position, navigation and timing services, making it highly vulnerable to GPS as a single point of failure” said Ganesh Pattabiraman, Co-Founder and CEO of NextNav. “With this integration we have demonstrated a highly scalable and lower cost alternative - a 3D PNT solution which overcomes the vulnerabilities of GPS with a complementary ground based resilient PNT layer that extends PNT capabilities in urban and indoor environments .”

The announcement of the successful Bay Area test follows a recent European Joint Research Centre (JRC) report, which highlighted NextNav’s TerraPoiNT as a mature technology that met or exceeded relevant benchmarks to serve as a resilient layer for existing GPS and GNSS technologies. Previously, in a 2021 report, tests by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) found TerraPoiNT to be the only commercial alternative PNT solution to meet identified needs in “all applicable use case scenarios.”