FCC: “WTB and OET Seek Comment on NextNav Petition for Rulemaking”

Seeking comment on NextNav Inc.’s petition, which involves reconfiguring the entire Lower 900 MHz Band for a “5G terrestrial positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) network” that “complements and backs up” U.S. GPS.

https://www.fcc.gov/document/wtb-and-oet-seek-comment-nextnav-petition-rulemaking

As a piece of trivia:

The precursor to the 1980 Closed Captioning system was intended to provide precise timing for potential use in positioning work… and had some testing in positioning applications. (It was one of many precursors to the U.S. GPS system.)

@artandtechnic ohh! So you would position yourself by picking up TV signals and looking at their time codes? Clever!

@foone Exactly. Amazing what these folks were attempting to do in 1970 (!!).

@foone Exactly. Amazing what these folks were attempting to do in 1970 (!!).

@artandtechnic awesome. Such an American idea, navigating by TV stations

@foone @artandtechnic if you've got enough stations and good enough clocks, why not! It'd work in a lot of places - FM radio might be easier though, and AM would definitely be easier