New EU Report Stresses Importance of GNSS Alternatives for PNT – NextNav TerraPoiNT Exceeds Industry Standards Across Use Cases

The European Union’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) released a new report today on its trials of Alternative Position, Navigation and Timing (A-PNT) technologies, conducted between 2021 and 2022. The demonstration tested technologies from seven different companies on their ability to address vulnerabilities and serve as a complement to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) – the satellite-based PNT technology that includes the EU’s Galileo and the United States’ GPS systems, among others. Although widely used, GNSS technology suffers from unique shortcomings, and without alternatives in place, the effects of an outage would be far-reaching and damaging to the European economy.

The JRC recognized  NextNav’s TerraPoiNT as a mature solution that meets or exceeds all relevant benchmarks to serve as a resilient layer to existing GNSS technology. Of the technologies tested, TerraPoiNT delivers both horizontal and vertical location services while remaining commercially deployable and cost-effective for end-users. Previously, tests by the US Department of Transportation (DOT) found TerraPoiNT to be the only commercial PNT alternative to meet identified needs in “all applicable use case scenarios.”

Critical infrastructure and industries are reliant on precise PNT services, but traditional GNSS remains vulnerable to interference, which can include jamming or spoofing attacks, solar flares, or even direct strikes on satellites. In recent months following the invasion of Ukraine, European commercial aircraft have reported jamming disruptions to their satellite navigation systems. A widespread outage would impact financial transactions, mobile networks, power grids, transportation infrastructure, and more, with disastrous economic and national security consequences.

Executed on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defense Industry and Space (DEFIS), the JRC report was based on rigorous testing and data analysis, and is designed to strengthen the resilience of the EU’s economy and critical infrastructure by identifying alternative solutions for a potential GNSS outage and to serve as a guide for policymakers as they look to select and implement these technologies.

“With this report, the European Union is taking an important step for security and economic resilience by working to address GNSS vulnerabilities,” said Ganesh Pattabiraman, Co-Founder and CEO of NextNav. “We’re proud that the JRC confirmed TerraPoiNT’s exceptional performance and its ability to fulfill today’s PNT needs. As European policymakers look ahead to the upcoming European Radionavigation plan and develop their infrastructure priorities, we encourage them to use these findings as a lodestar to act quickly before facing the serious consequences of a GNSS outage.”