Executives in the positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) sector are advocating for increased resiliency for GPS to ensure communication viability. At a recent Federal Communications Bar Association event in Washington, D.C., Virginia Tech's David Simpson highlighted the telecommunications industry's heavy reliance on PNT technologies, warning that adversarial attacks, including spoofing, pose significant threats to U.S. communications [2225400b].
Simpson's concerns were echoed by Ed Mortimer of NextNav, who emphasized the need for government support of innovative technologies to compete effectively with Russia's GLONASS and China's BeiDou systems. Mortimer described the absence of a national GPS backup as 'shocking' and urged for research into complementary systems that could bolster GPS reliability [2225400b]. NextNav has suggested that a ground-based GPS backup could potentially avert losses estimated at $663 million during outages, underscoring the economic implications of GPS vulnerabilities [2225400b].
This discussion comes at a time when China's BeiDou satellite navigation system is expanding its capabilities, particularly with the introduction of SMS functionality aimed at enhancing connectivity in areas lacking mobile coverage. By 2025, it is projected that 423 million mobile users in China will be able to connect via satellites, ensuring reliable communication even in remote regions [91b6d5b3].
The BeiDou system, which achieved full operational status in 2020, supports around 1.4 billion devices across China and has recently secured substantial funding for new projects aimed at enhancing its applications [fd0a1e8f]. As the competition in global navigation systems intensifies, the need for a resilient GPS infrastructure in the U.S. becomes increasingly critical [b7266f49].
The ongoing developments in both GPS resiliency and BeiDou's advancements highlight the importance of robust navigation systems in maintaining national security and economic stability in an increasingly interconnected world [c33a2f90].