NextNav, Opponents to Square Off at House GPS Hearing

WASHINGTON, June 2, 2026 – Representatives from NextNav, the Consumer Technology Association, and the National Association of Broadcasters are set to testify at a Thursday House hearing on GPS complements.

The full witness list was released by the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee Tuesday:

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• Lisa Dyer , Executive Director, GPS Innovation Alliance (GPSIA)

• Sam Matheny , Executive Vice President, Broadcast Positioning System, National Association of Broadcasters

• Mariam Sorond , Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer, NextNav

• Harold Feld , Senior Vice President, Public Knowledge

• J. David Grossman , Vice President, Policy & Regulatory Affairs, Consumer Technology Association

The staff memo circulated by the subcommittee said the hearing would be focused on questions like challenges to GPS modernization and how lawmakers could support complimentary or alternative position, navigation, and timing (PNT) systems. The subcommittee is led by Rep. Richard Hudson , R-N.C.

As the memo notes, NextNav has asked the Federal Communications commission to alter the lower 900 MegaHertz band to give the company 15 megahertz for a terrestrial PNT and 5G broadband network. It has received widespread pushback from other users of the band like toll operators, transit agencies, security system operators, and others who fear their systems won't be able to handle interference from the planned network.

Sorond, NextNav’s CEO, could have to face off Thursday against Feld and Grossman. Public Knowledge and CTA have opposed NextNav’s petition at the FCC.

An attorney for the Security Industry Association said last month the group expected the agency to move forward with a notice of proposed rulemaking asking more questions on the PNT backup/NextNav issues sometime this summer. The agency has already opened inquiries on both in recent years.

The issue has turned into a fierce lobbying fight on Capitol Hill, with the House Appropriations Committee attaching a provision to FCC budget legislation that would prevent the agency from acting on NextNav’s petition. The bill cleared the committee but hasn’t been taken up by the full House.

Before the subcommittee released the witness list, it was posted on LinkedIn by Dana Goward , president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.

Witness testimony

Dyer, executive director of PNT industry group GPSIA, wrote in written testimony to lawmakers that the U.S.’s GPS system was “ripe for rapid modernization.” She wrote eight of its 32 satellites were a single system failure away from going offline.

The GPS control station is in line for a new software upgrade after the Space Force ditched a behind-schedule plan from Raytheon, which she wrote would make modernization easier and quicker.

That said, she emphasized the GPS system has never fully gone down since coming online in 1995 and supports an already existing private PNT industry that provides complementary services, even if they aren’t a wholesale replacement for the global navigation and military capabilities of GPS.

She wrote the government should be clearer about what it was trying to solve with a new GPS backup, and that agencies like the FCC and Transportation Department need more staff to adequately handle the issue.

Feld and Grossman said GPS was essential for many consumer products, which made resilience important. They also advised lawmakers against the NextNav proposal. Feld wrote that requests to change spectrum rules were always contentious, but that support in the record was lopsided against NextNav.

“Even if one could ignore the interference concerns raised in the docket, NextNav’s proposal, if granted, would constitute a fantastic windfall” which represents “billions of dollars in value,” he wrote. “But NextNav does not even offer public interest obligations that it will provide in exchange for this expanded spectrum access.”

Sorond wrote in her testimony that GPS interference and jamming were serious safety issues, especially for aviation. She said NextNav’s proposed backup would have improved accuracy indoors and in tall buildings versus existing GPS infrastructure.

“NextNav is proud to have developed a commercially viable ground-based complement and backup to GPS that can be deployed in the near term, on existing 5G infrastructure, and at no cost to taxpayers,” she wrote. “We are particularly proud that our technologies enhance public safety where they are deployed. Because our solution is based on 5G — which already reaches the population centers where people live and work — it will be within reach of the vast majority of Americans.”

Matheny, head of NAB’s PNT company Merkhet Solutions, touted the group’s own terrestrial PNT proposal. NAB announced the launch of Merhet Solutions Tuesday.

The proposal, which the FCC has also sought comment on, would use next-generation ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV signals to provide location services. He wrote that the system’s infrastructure was already deployed and would not require new spectrum, and that it would be difficult to jam

“Simply put, BPS allows a broadcast television signal to serve two purposes at once: providing a resilient timing and positioning layer for critical users, while delivering enhanced free, over-the-air television to your constituents,” he wrote.