• February 20, 2025

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As we continue into 2025, the lack of a nationwide terrestrial backup system for GPS in the United States remains a critical concern. The sudden loss of GPS for even a day would not only cause navigation apps to stop working and commutes to be disrupted, but it could also threaten national security and public safety with the potential for approximately $1.6 billion in daily economic losses.

Accurate positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) supports trillions of dollars of critical infrastructure, including electricity grids, telecommunications networks, public safety operations, and financial systems. Because of our growing dependence on it, GPS is vulnerable to spoofing, where GPS signals are faked to mislead devices, and jamming, where signals are blocked entirely.

There is a growing consensus that the United States must build a “system-of-systems approach” for PNT resilience to back up GPS, including both space and ground-based options, to protect our national security.

“It has historically not been economically feasible to deploy a standalone, wide-scale, terrestrial 3D PNT network. However, the FCC did issue a public notice to seek comment on rearranging the spectrum in the Lower 900 MegaHertz (MHz) band to enable its use for terrestrial 3D positioning PNT services by NextNav, a global leader in this technology. This plan would create a complement and backup to GPS that is a 5G solution, so it will be more easily integrated into the existing ecosystem. If our GPS system went down, this PNT solution would step in.”

This strategic plan would be a big win for national security, public safety, and 5G — all promoting the public good without any taxpayer dollars or legislation.

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Sources:

fierce-network.com/sponsored/critical-infrastructure-national-security-why-gps-needs-terrestrial-backup

broadbandbreakfast.com/gps-needs-a-backup-terrestrial-pnt-is-the-answer/