Radio amateurs: EFF complains of planned “blatant land grab” on 900 MHz frequency

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has leveled serious allegations against NextNav. The San Francisco civil rights organization has accused the US navigation service provider of usurping and privatizing parts of the 900 MHz frequency band. The US regulatory authority FCC (Federal Communications Commission) currently classifies the spectrum between 902 and 928 MHz as public domain. It is approved for radio amateurs, unlicensed consumer devices as well as industrial, scientific and medical equipment and has developed into a “hotbed for new technologies and community projects” such as Meshtastic, emphasizes the EFF. This shared resource must definitely be protected.

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There are also millions of consumer devices According to American civil rights activists, they rely on these frequencies. These included baby monitors, cordless phones, Internet of Things devices and garage door openers. But NextNav “will claim this spectrum for itself, lock it up and rent it out to mobile phone providers,” the EFF complains. “This is just another land grab” by a company that is looking for profit and hiding it through alleged innovation efforts.

Planned resale to 5G network operators

Officially, the service provider has a share of the band with the FCC for a new positioning, navigation, and timing network Applied as a US-specific backup to the Global Positioning System (GPS).. But the move has set off alarm bells within the EFF. According to them, such a network would be of little use for direct national security purposes due to the loss of global orientation, “especially since it is likely to be vulnerable to the same jamming and spoofing attacks as GPS.” NextNav itself also admitted that there was little commercial demand for the alternative. GPS works, is free and is supported by several manufacturers. The EU, among others, has already established its own satellite navigation system, Galileo.

The EFF is angry, “If NextNAV has a big plan to implement a new and better standard, it was not mentioned in their FCC proposal.” However, the provider did not hide its intention to resell its desired “exclusive bandwidth access” to 5G network operators. But there are already exclusive frequency ranges for this. So the regulator should reject the application. There are also several associations and coalitions, such as the OmniAir Consortium, the Z-Wave Alliance, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, and the National Electrical Manufacturers Association. Overload warning for NextNav,

In this country, the Federal Network Agency wants to extend the use rights of Telecom & Co. to the 800 MHz, 1.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands and beyond, with the licensing of 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.5 GHz and 1 GHz bands, which expire in 2033 .8 MHz for mobile communications.

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