Ganesh Pattabiraman

LEADERS' OUTLOOK

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022

GPS and 3D Location are the Backbone of Our Infrastructure

BY GANESH PATTABIRAMAN

CEO & Co-Founder, NextNav

The rapid digitalization of the world over the past few years has emphasized the need for 3D geolocation technologies, especially in urban areas. This trend only accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic with the use of technologies like contact tracing. Everything from the Metaverse to building Smart Cities requires reliable and more resilient location technology. Over the next few years, we will see even greater crossover of the digital and the physical worlds, and 3D location technology will play a fundamental role in this crossover.

This technology plays a major role in building more immersive augmented and virtual reality capabilities. The digital layer that will live on top of the physical world is not two dimensional. Z-axis capabilities will need to be involved, especially in urban areas where skylines are populated with multistory buildings. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) games like Pokemon Go (which has achieved mass popularity) will continue to develop further as 3D geolocation becomes more widely adopted and, with it, even more realistic digital worlds will be made.

We are already seeing significant traction with AR and VR developers. In July 2021, NextNav Pinnacle software development kit (SDK) became a Unity Verified Solution, enabling developers to seamlessly integrate 3D vertical location into all game applications on the platform. This enables developers to bring a new level of immersion, precision and accuracy to game development and create a true sense reality in these applications. Additionally, we received an Epic MegaGrant to bring vertical location to the Unreal Engine, which we completed in August 2021 with the release of our Unreal Engine plug-in that allows developers to utilize 3D location on the Unreal platform.

The third dimension GPS and 3D location are the backbone of our infrastructure, in more ways than people realize. GPS is absolutely essential in numerous cases, including telecommunication, autonomous navigation, electrical infrastructure, air traffic control, and many more. Smart Cities rely on this critical technology, so it is extremely important that it not be disrupted. Weak signals create even more problems in urban areas, as they can’t penetrate tall buildings very well.

A key problem in Smart Cities is that GPS doesn’t deliver service in the vertical dimension. In cities defined by skyscrapers and multi-level structures, vertical location is a necessity for safety and efficiency. The factories, warehouses, and cities of the future need a location-services solution that works along the Z-axis and is compatible with existing GPS infrastructure. Until we fully implement an alternative such as our Pinnacle service, GPS limits us to a two-dimensional world.

We are seeing rapid adoption of the Z-axis. It's a transformation that is long overdue: the industry as a whole needs to think about the end user experience, because customers don’t just exist in X and Y. Public safety departments are quickly adopting the Z-axis for better situational awareness in emergency situations. But that’s not all — we are also seeing its adoption

across a variety of industries, including gaming and retail, in which companies are realizing they can better serve their customers when they have a better picture of their location in our three-dimensional world.

NextNav’s Pinnacle service exceeds the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) Z-axis requirement for nationwide Enhanced 911 (also known as E911) — which automatically provides caller location to 911 dispatchers — since we are fully deployed in more than 4,400 cities in towns across the United States, reaching 90 percent of the buildings that are more than three stories high. Last month, we announced a partnership with a top wireless carrier to bring Z-axis GPS capabilities to cellular devices. This implementation will deliver critical vertical location information to public safety answering points (PSAPs) when a 911 call is made. Our partnership with this top tier provider is a step in the right direction, and we expect more carriers will adopt this technology ahead of the deadline.

First responders have been asking for 3D geolocation and improved situational awareness for a number of years now, as it can literally save lives. In its assessment for more precise geolocation, the FCC estimated that it could save over 10,000 lives.

Towards resilient location tech GPS is extremely vulnerable to disruptions, spoofing, and jamming, which presents a national security risk. NextNav’s TerraPoiNT service exists to provide a resilient layer to existing GPS systems through enhancement and supplementation in particularly dense urban areas. TerraPoiNT is a terrestrial system that delivers alternative PNT (positioning, navigation, and timing) with a signal that’s over 100,000 times stronger than GPS — making it more precise, available and resilient compared to GPS.

TerraPoiNT uses a dedicated, terrestrial network of transmitters to deliver critical PNT services where GPS can’t — indoors and in urban areas. Our service is secure, offering fully encrypted signals resistant to GPS spoofing and jamming. It has been evaluated by the US Department of Transportation and the Department of Homeland Security, and has been a part of recent tests conducted by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre. TerraPoiNT is fully deployed in the Bay Area, and partially deployed in roughly 50 US markets today, with a presence in Japan as well.

Along with this, we expect 5G technology to be transformative to emergency response in not only providing greater information, including multimedia, but at a much lower latency. The faster that someone in distress can be assisted by a first responder, the higher the likelihood of survival. Providing the vertical location (or Z-axis) of emergency callers will save an estimated 10,000 lives per year in the United States, according to studies, by reducing the time it takes for first responders to locate a caller in need. In addition to improving operational response strategy, Z-axis helps to keep first responders safe in these situations as well by providing incident commanders with the precise location of first responders — helping them to better direct first responders to the safest avenues of approach.

Partnerships and collaborations In October 2021, we announced a partnership with Qualcomm to enable our Pinnacle software and network-based services for use with the Qualcomm Location Suite. The partnership allows device manufacturers and vendors to integrate Z-axis capabilities into existing carrier infrastructure. It gives first-responders access to the location of the 911 callers in case of an emergency, giving them the ability to understand the exact location of the person in need sooner. We are excited to collaborate with Qualcomm to bring Z-axis capabilities to feature phones, wearables, and other commercial devices. We’re working across the chipset level, with carrier partners, device manufacturers, and mapping companies to help bring precise floor-level location for emergency callers and first responders.

I believe that NextNav’s journey to become a public company is an important milestone for the geolocation industry, as it is indicative of investor interest in the Space and also exposes the public markets to the vulnerabilities of GPS. The Spartacus Acquisition gives us an opportunity to rapidly grow our footprint. We have successfully deployed our Pinnacle service across the United States, and we can now focus on further adoption of our service across industries and on deploying our TerraPoiNT service.

We are seeing rapid adoption of the Z-axis. The industry as a whole needs to think about the end user experience, because customers don’t just exist in X and Y.

LEADERS' OUTLOOK

ANNUAL EDITION / JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2022