“GPS is an absolute national treasure” — Here’s why.
Highlighting the most pressing issues involving the nation’s reliance on GPS and the obstacles associated with that dependency, Federal News Network’s Eric White talked with NextNav’s Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Renee Gregory on its recent podcast episode: GPS has been revolutionary for everyone, but only when it is able to work.
“GPS has become something we’ve relied on every day from navigation and deliveries to financial networks, utilities, and communications. But that dependence also creates vulnerabilities,” said White.
Gregory and White discussed the most critical use cases for GPS resiliency, how to deploy a GPS complement and backup solution at scale, and what can be done to enable deployment.
GPS provides “not only the little blue dot you see on your maps every single day but also important timing information to support things like critical infrastructure like water, utilities, financial institutions. GPS is an absolute national treasure. We all rely on it every single day in ways that we don’t even realize. But because those satellites are so high up and it is a single system, it is a single point of failure. And that is what we at NextNav are trying to address with our 5G-based 3D PNT — a backup and complement to GPS.”
She continues, “We are in a global scenario where GPS is on the battlefield and is part of the battlefield. GPS is actively being jammed in areas of conflict right now. We have seen that for years.”
Gregory and White also discuss important elements of the solution, such as how the technology works, what’s being done at the federal level, and how the funding won’t use taxpayer dollars.
Listen to the full episode here.