NextNav Opposition Might Be Due to Chinese Ties: Group
Much of the opposition to a 5G-based terrestrial positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) system as a complement to GPS has "troubling connections" to Chinese entities, conservative group the Bull Moose Project said Thursday (docket 18-89). Substantial opposition from groups like the LoRa Alliance, RAIN Alliance, Security Industry Association, Wi-Sun Alliance and Z-Wave Alliance seems "designed to stall progress rather than solve a major national security threat," the Bull Moose Project said. It said those groups count Chinese companies such as ZTE, Shenzhen Makerfabs, Zhejiang Chint Electrics, Ningbo Dooya Mechanic & Electronic Technology and Taixin Semiconductor as members, and representatives of the groups have been vocal in the FCC’s PNT proceeding. The groups' opposition sometimes seems "less concerned about interference and more about stalling competition, favoring alternative approaches, or protecting China’s strategic edge and keeping America vulnerable to a single point of failure," Bull Moose Project added.
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The Security Industry Association said Friday in an emailed statement that it "has no Chinese-owned membership." NextNav's "unworkable proposal" to use the 902-928 MHz swath of spectrum to offer a terrestrial complement to GPS raises "serious concerns, shared by many others, about the threat it poses to millions of Americans who rely on everyday devices such as smoke detectors, tolling systems, public safety communications, and IoT devices." The group argued that there's a range of technologies that can serve as backup to GPS "without disrupting vital public safety systems, affecting millions of devices in Americans’ homes, or granting a spectrum windfall to a single company."
LoRa Alliance said in an email that it's a U.S.-based global trade association, "with 70% of its Board members comprised of American companies while representing members around the world." The group is "committed to supporting the FCC’s efforts to strengthen GPS resiliency through satellite and terrestrial backup systems, for which there are many solutions. We, along with several other wireless alliances, are advocating for a solution that ensures the continued protection of the Part 15 ecosystem, so hundreds of millions of deployed devices are not disrupted.”
RAIN Alliance President Aileen Ryan emailed us a Washington Examiner column she wrote last week, which said that NextNav's proposed use of the 900 MHz band for high-power terrestrial 5G and PNT threatens to cause interference for RAIN RFID systems and that the opposition isn't driven by anti-U.S. interests.