McLean tech firm NextNav Inc. is working to make a more precise and secure complement to GPS technology, but it needs a big assist from the federal government.
The company, which provides ground-based geolocation services for telecommunications companies and others, has submitted a rulemaking petition to the Federal Communications Commission that seeks to reband a section of wireless spectrum to support access for a ground-based version of position, navigation and timing (PNT) services. These services are otherwise primarily derived from satellites in space.
If all goes according to plan, NextNav (NASDAQ:NN) would be permitted to use a small part of the 900 MHz public wireless spectrum to provide these location services via signals from telecommunications towers.
These services are used for directions, emergency location identification, and even for the synchronizing of time between financial transactions, cellular networks and power grids, among others things. But space-based signals are often prone to spoofing or jamming, and providing these services via towers could essentially provide an extra layer of security to companies, governments and individuals that use GPS.
"This for me has now become a mission, and really, that's what we do; we wanted to figure out how do we make this a reality, how do we solve our national security problem," said CEO Mariam Sorond. "That ask we have in front of the FCC is an important ask, but big problems need big solutions."
NextNav was founded in 2007 and went public in October 2021 via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. The company's customers include telecom companies, which, for example, can use NextNav's tech to help inform emergency responders where someone is inside a building with floor-level accuracy.
Its application to license wireless spectrum, filed last month, marks a big pivot for the company, which under co-founder and former CEO Ganesh Pattabiraman had dreams of building out a standalone PNT system. But that proved to be a costly and logistically difficult endeavor and, under Sorond, NextNav now aims to deploy its tech using existing infrastructure.
Sorond, who replaced Pattabiraman in November, is counting on the FCC's approval of its rulemaking petition to improve NextNav's financial picture. The company posted $1 million in revenue in the first quarter and while that was a slight improvement from the same quarter a year earlier, its net loss nearly doubled year over year, to $31.6 million.
Investors seem to like her approach; the company's stock is up around 75% since Sorond, a telecom industry veteran, took the helm. Its shares were trading at $7.66 late Tuesday.
It's unclear when the FCC will issue a ruling on NextNav's application, as the agency can take several months to a year before it issues a verdict on such matters following a 30-day public comment period.
But Sorond has good reason to be confident. In March, the company won a key approval from a California court to acquire a smaller band of spectrum licenses, setting the stage for it to move forward with obtaining FCC approval.
And Sorond is already moving forward with building out her team. This month, the company tapped tech industry veteran Sanyogita Shamsunder to serve as the company's first-ever chief operating officer, overseeing business development, strategy and product initiatives, among other responsibilities. She joins the company with 20 years of experience in business development roles, most recently holding the title of head of edge network infrastructure at Google.
