WASHINGTON—The Federal Communications Commission has launched an inquiry to explore commercial technologies that would complement the Global Positioning System (GPS).
In launching the effort, the FCC noted that while GPS is indispensable to America’s economic and national security, the reliance on a single system to provide location data makes the U.S. vulnerable to disruption or manipulation.
The FCC noted that the Notice of Inquiry will examine how the Commission might foster GPS complements and alternatives. The Notice will explore a wide array of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) technologies under development by broadcasters, wireless operators, satellite constellations, and startups that use FCC-licensed spectrum. It also seeks comment on the tradeoffs among these emerging PNT offerings based on factors like performance, adoption, scale, geographic coverage, durability, cost, and commercialization, the FCC said.
The initiative, which was approved unanimously by the commissioners on March, 27, could help advance the Broadcast Positioning System that was invented and patented by the NAB and provide another important use for NextGen TV broadcasts, which are used by BPS.
In February, the NAB highlighted the five-year anniversary of President Trump’s Executive Order 13905, which called for strengthening the resilience of Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) services, with a concerted push to promote BPS as an alternative to GPS and as a way to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, economic security and public safety in emergencies when GPS might not be available.
"Invented and patented by NAB, BPS is a first-of-its-kind technology that leverages the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard to transmit precise timing signals," the NAB reported. "Unlike GPS, which relies on satellites that can be vulnerable to jamming, spoofing and cyberattacks, BPS provides a high-power terrestrial-based solution that ensures critical systems remain operational even during GPS disruptions."
"President Trump’s Executive Order 13905 was a turning point, recognizing the vulnerabilities of GPS and calling for the urgent need to strengthen national resilience through secure, alternative PNT solutions. NAB answered that call with the invention of BPS,” Sam Matheny, NAB executive vice president and chief technology officer said in February. “By leveraging local TV stations and the NextGen ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard, BPS strengthens our nation’s lifeline critical infrastructure by providing an independent and resilient solution to ensure our economic and national security.”
A wide variety of materials on BPS can be found on the NAB website here.
In the Notice of Inquiry, the FCC mentions BPS as one of a long list of possible alternatives.
“The Broadcast Positioning System (BPS) uses features of ATSC 3.0, an international standard for broadcast television, to deliver precise timing information within television broadcast signals to enable the calculation of PNT data,” the Notice explained. “Dedicated spectrum and infrastructure are not required since existing TV broadcasting infrastructure is leveraged to generate PNT data. Specifically, when a television station transmits its precise horizontal location along with a time stamp, standardized receivers determine their location based on their calculation of the time difference of arrival (TDOA) of the received signals. The accuracy of BPS depends on factors such as the number of transmitters, the distance between the transmitter and the receiver, the geometry of the locations of the transmitters in relation to the receiver, and the environment.”
“Because television station transmitters are close to the Earth’s surface and broadcast signals are strong, most have the ability to penetrate buildings and other structures in contrast to GNSS signals,” the document continued. “Further, according to the National Association of Broadcasters, broadcast signals are not as vulnerable to the intentional interference that is problematic for space-based PNT systems. In addition, television broadcast signals operate on a variety of frequencies at once, making them more difficult to jam. While broadcasters have been developing and testing the use of ATSC 3.0 to provide PNT capabilities since 2021, the Commission at present has no specific rules regarding the use of ATSC 3.0 for this purpose.”
In a statement on the inquiry into GPS alternatives, FCC chair Brendan Carr did not specifically mention BPS, but he stressed the importance of finding an alternative on national security grounds.
“For all the space weather fans out there, May 10, 2024, was a pretty epic evening.” he wrote in a statement. “That’s because the Northern Lights were clearly visible across large swaths of the country for the first time in decades—lighting up the sky in a mix of greens and reds and purples. Many of our country’s farmers will never forget that day for a different reason. The massive solar storm that produced those Northern Lights also shut down planting operations across the American Midwest by knocking out GPS. As Kevin Kenney, a Nebraska farmer, put it, `All the tractors are sitting at the ends of the field right now shut down because of the solar storm ... No GPS.’”
“Agriculture is just one facet of modern American life vulnerable to GPS disruptions,” Carr continued. “Our electric grid. Our financial systems. Our ports. Our communications networks. Our military. Our driving directions. You name it. All rely on GPS to provide Positioning, Navigation, and Timing, or PNT, data.”
“With this inquiry, we will explore other PNT systems that can be complements or alternatives to GPS, with an emphasis on complementary systems,” he concluded. “Beyond answering technical questions, we hope this effort will engage stakeholders across government and industry to encourage the development of new PNT technologies and solutions.“
