NextNav Launches Metro Wide Timing as a Service

NextNav Provides a Scalable and Cost Effective Wide Area Option for Indoor Timing Based on Its Metropolitan Beacon System (MBS) Network

– Today, NextNav announced the launch of its Timing as a Service (“TaaS”), providing high-precision timing where GPS-based signals are not available.  Diverse industries, from cellular network operators to utility companies to financial services firms will be able to take advantage of TaaS for lower cost and better performance in critical timing-based systems that traditionally have required expensive work-arounds. TaaS is delivered over NextNav’s Metropolitan Beacon System (“MBS”) network, a wide-area location and timing network developed by NextNav to provide GPS-like services where satellite-based signals are not available.  

NextNav’s MBS network is terrestrial, which allows strong location and timing signals to be received deep indoors and in urban areas where faint satellite-based signals are blocked.  Historically, delivering high-precision time in these areas has required expensive venue-based solutions, including Dedicated Time Servers and Grand Masters, often coupled with costly construction and cabling requirements. TaaS is available directly over the air, and meets or exceeds the most stringent timing and synchronization requirements for current LTE and LTE-A small cells as well as those expected for upcoming 5G base stations. 

“Small cells are the ideal way to provide densification in important urban environments where mobile data traffic overwhelms large cell towers and where macro base stations are prohibitively expensive,” said Ganesh Pattabiraman Co-Founder and CEO of NextNav. “MBS excels in these environments. As small cell requirements for timing and synchronization precision advance with each new generation of technology, NextNav delivers an effective, truly mass market solution supporting the rising demand for small cells at an appropriately low total cost of ownership.”

In addition to supplementing GPS in challenged environments, NextNav’s MBS network incorporates atomic clocks at each beacon site, providing a high quality backup to GPS disturbances across NextNav’s service area.

TaaS coverage is available for high-precision timing applications in select metro areas today, with build-to-suit options and expanded coverage coming soon.  Contact NextNav for service details and more information. 

More information is available at www.nextnav.com; you may also contact Christian Gates at cgates@nextnav.com or (571) 765-3619.

About NextNav

NextNav developed the revolutionary Metropolitan Beacon System (MBS) positioning and timing technology to allow mobile phones and other devices to reliably determine their location and timing in indoor and urban environments where GPS signals can’t be received. NextNav’s three dimensional location system provides accurate horizontal positioning with floor-level height precision. Delivered over a managed network on licensed spectrum, with carrier-grade dependability and metropolitan-wide coverage, NextNav’s positioning and timing services are designed for E911, public safety, critical infrastructure as well as the multitude of consumer and commercial applications that require precise indoor timing and 3D location accuracy.