Radio amateurs: EFF deplores planned "brazen land grab" on 900 MHz frequency

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has made serious accusations against NextNav. The civil rights organization from San Francisco accuses the US navigation service provider of wanting to seize and privatize parts of the 900 MHz frequency band. The US regulatory authority FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has currently classified the spectrum between 902 and 928 MHz as public property. It is open to amateur radio operators, unlicensed consumer devices and industrial, scientific and medical equipment and has become a "hotbed for new technologies and community projects" such as Meshtastic, emphasizes the EFF. This shared resource must be preserved at all costs.

According to the US civil rights activists, millions of consumer devices also rely on these frequencies. These include baby monitors, cordless phones, Internet of Things devices and garage door openers. However, NextNav would "rather claim this spectrum for itself, lock it up and rent it out to wireless providers", complains the EFF. "This is just another land grab" by a company that is out to make a profit and disguises this with alleged innovation efforts.

Planned resale to 5G network operators

Officially, the service provider has applied to the FCC for part of the band for a new positioning, navigation and timing network as a US-specific backup to the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, this move has set alarm bells ringing at the EFF. According to the EFF, such a network would hardly be useful for alleged national security purposes due to the lack of global alignment, "especially since it is likely to be vulnerable to the same jamming and spoofing attacks as GPS". NextNav itself has also admitted that there is little commercial demand for an alternative. GPS works, is free and is supported by many manufacturers. However, the EU, among others, has already set up its own satellite navigation system, Galileo.

"If NextNav has a grand plan to implement a new and improved standard, it was not mentioned in their FCC proposal," the EFF is annoyed. However, the provider did not hide its intention to resell its desired "exclusive bandwidth access" to 5G network operators. However, there are already special frequency ranges for this. The regulator must therefore reject the application. Numerous associations and groups such as the OmniAir consortium, the Z-Wave Alliance, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association are also warning against NextNav being awarded the contract.

In Germany, the Federal Network Agency wants to extend Telekom & Co.'s usage rights for the 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands and later make them available for mobile communications together with the 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.5 GHz and 1.8 MHz licenses that expire in 2033.

(nie)