The race is underway to back up a crucial and increasingly vulnerable linchpin of American infrastructure.
On Tuesday, a trade group representing local broadcast stations across the US announced a new venture that will aim to provide an alternative to the country’s Global Positioning System, using a cross-country network of TV towers.
After several years of development, the National Association of Broadcasters will spin off its “broadcast positioning system” technology into a new startup, Merkhet Solutions Inc.
Sam Matheny, the company’s new chief executive officer, said in an interview that Merkhet will be able to offer global positioning and timing data similar to GPS by embedding time stamps and tower location data into TV broadcasts that are already transmitting over the airwaves.
Although GPS was invented in the 1970s as a military service, much of the nation’s critical infrastructure, including cellular networks, the energy grid and financial institutions, have since come to rely on GPS to function. “It has become an invisible utility,” Matheny said.
Lately, there have been growing concerns among policymakers in Washington over the long-term reliability of GPS, which can be susceptible to spoofing attempts and interference.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission collected public comments on commercial technologies that would complement GPS. On Thursday, a subcommittee of the US House of Representatives will hold a hearing on GPS alternatives, where Matheny will testify.
Other companies are similarly shopping GPS fallbacks. NextNav Inc., a publicly traded developer of 3D geolocation services, is offering positioning and timing technology using 5G wireless signals. NextNav’s CEO Mariam Sorond is also slated to testify Thursday.
Merkhet, which takes its name from an ancient Egyptian instrument for telling time at night, hopes to win over regulators by arguing that its system is nearly ready to go.
“We don’t need any new spectrum to deploy this, and we don’t need a build out,” NAB President Curtis LeGeyt said in an interview. “Yes, we need to upgrade certain of our facilities, but our infrastructure is built out.”
Written by: Kelcee Griffis @Bloomberg
The post “Broadcasters Enter the Market for GPS Backup Services” first appeared on Bloomberg