The House Committee on Energy and Commerce announced on May 28 that it will hold a hearing titled ‘Where Are We?: Examining Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Capabilities in the United States.’ The hearing is scheduled for June 4 at 10:15 AM ET in Room 2123 of the Rayburn House Office Building. It will be open to the public and press, with a livestream available online.
Chairman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky and Chairman Richard Hudson of North Carolina said, “The U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) underlies critical technologies Americans use and rely on every day, but many people may not realize GPS applications extend far beyond the map apps on their phones. From national defense and critical infrastructure, such as banking and energy, to the daily routines of nearly every American, even a temporary GPS outage would drastically affect hundreds of millions of lives. We look forward to a conversation about how we can strengthen positioning, navigation, and timing services to maximize resiliency and reliability.”
Sam Matheny, Chief Executive Officer of Merkhet Solutions and former Executive Vice President of Technology at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), testified before the subcommittee about alternatives to GPS. Matheny said that Merkhet Solutions launched as an independent company focused on deploying the Broadcast Positioning System (BPS), which is a patented terrestrial timing and position technology using existing broadcast infrastructure. According to Matheny, “BPS has been designed to address this more than $1 billion-per-day economic and national security risk posed by our collective overreliance on GPS… BPS gives critical users a terrestrial option that can function even when GPS is compromised.”
Matheny described BPS as using ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast television signals to deliver precise time and positioning information without requiring internet or satellite connectivity. He outlined several advantages including existing resilient infrastructure operated by local broadcasters nationwide; independence from GPS; difficulty in jamming or spoofing; use within licensed spectrum; support for unlimited simultaneous users; phased deployment potential; ongoing pilot projects with federal agencies such as NIST and DOT; as well as successful demonstrations in several markets.
Matheny concluded his testimony by urging Congress to accelerate BPS installation through funding support for traceable time systems, designate a lead agency for coordination efforts around complementary PNT solutions like BPS, and encourage completion of the ATSC 3.0 transition by the Federal Communications Commission.
