Cybersecurity Expert Champions NextNav PNT Petition

NextNav's FCC petition on a proposed terrestrial complement to GPS for positioning, navigation and timing services is "a strong step toward addressing" the U.S.' national security PNT risk, according to cybersecurity expert David Simpson. The former head of the FCC's Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau wrote Wednesday in Breaking Defense that a commission order establishing a ground-based PNT service category "would let the market introduce and sustain competitive solutions without the tail of a new federal program." Now Pamplin Business College Professor in Leadership and Cybersecurity at Virginia Tech, Simpson said that while the FCC is reviewing the record on the NextNav proposals, DOD and other agencies overseeing GPS should motivate a diverse mix of PNT solutions. NextNav provided partial support for a Simpson paper about the need for a terrestrial alternative for GPS PNT services (see 2409110035).