NextNav develops and operates terrestrial positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) technology designed to complement and back up GPS. GPS signals are weak, easy to jam or spoof, penetrate poorly into buildings, and lack reliable vertical accuracy — vulnerabilities that NextNav argues represent a national security risk. NextNav's technology transmits over licensed 900 MHz spectrum, producing signals far stronger than GPS satellite signals, capable of penetrating buildings and providing three-dimensional location data including altitude. NextNav's current commercial products are Pinnacle, a vertical location service using barometric sensors in smartphones and ground-based sensors to determine floor-level altitude for E911 and public safety applications, deployed nationally with AT&T and used by all major U.S. carriers; and TerraPoiNT, a prior-generation full 3D PNT system operated under a U.S. Department of Transportation contract. NextNav sells to wireless carriers, app developers, and government entities via API or SDK. The company's long-term model centers on NextGen, a platform that would embed PNT signals within a standard 5G network using NextNav's 900 MHz spectrum. Under this model, a mobile network operator would deploy the spectrum into its existing 5G infrastructure, generating broadband revenue while giving NextNav access to transmit its PNT signal — a software-only extraction requiring no additional device hardware. The entire NextGen commercialization path depends on FCC approval of NextNav's Petition for Rulemaking to reconfigure the lower 900 MHz band for 5G use. Until that approval is granted, NextNav's revenue remains limited to its existing Pinnacle and TerraPoiNT service contracts.
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