NextNav Emergency Location Technology

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By Michelle Choi, an insider at Lease Advisors

Virginia-based firm, NextNav, has developed technology that could alleviate the problem with retrieving emergency location data. While GPS works well outdoors, satellite-based positioning is typically unavailable or inaccurate in indoor and urban environments. With fewer consumers using landlines, instead opting for cellular devices, emergency responders have had problems accurately and reliably locating callers during emergency situations.

Wireless providers insist their technology delivers the data to operators, but these issues, coupled with the alarmingly low rate of accurate location data, has led to decreased response times by first responders. This is where NextNav steps in. Founder of XM Satellite radio, Gary Parsons, raised $70 million in Series D venture funding for his startup, led by New Enterprise Associates and Oak Investment Partners, Columbia Capital, Telecom Ventures, and Goldman Sachs.

The FCC’s Communications Security, Reliability, and Interoperability Council (CSRIC) compared its performance against other locating systems. The Council concluded that as the only vertically- and horizontally-enabled system, NextNav reduced first responder “search rings” by 90%. With a 2-meter vertical accuracy and 20-meter horizontal accuracy and a time to first fix (TTFF) of 5 seconds, NextNav far surpasses the capabilities of GPS, which may take up to 12 minutes to acquire satellite signals and navigation data. The technology is designed to offer a 95%+ yield whereas current rates of location data transmission stand anywhere from 20-40%.

Current indoor/outdoor mapping technologies use a combination of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GNSS—the last of which consists of satellites, chips, cell IDs, and Wi-Fi IDs. NextNav’s Metropolitan Beacon System (MBS) positioning network is similar, but is terrestrial. With its own licensed spectrum specifically for location services. MBS works similarly to cell phone networks, but covers a wider area with 80% less antenna installation and operating costs. Cellular carriers would not need to deploy any new transmission equipment or modify existing infrastructure to their cell towers, with the extent of NextNav firmware being a single, pole-type antenna attached by a single cable.

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