NextNav launches first commercial GPS technology testbed in Europe

NextNav, a company specialising in advanced GPS technology, has unveiled plans for its Pinnacle vertical location technology by launching the first commercial testbed in Europe.

The system is available in over 4,400 cities (Photo: AdobeStock)

The testbed, situated in the Paris area of France, aims to showcase the advantages and its seamless integration with applications and devices developed by existing NextNav partners.

NextNav’s Pinnacle technology determines the precise vertical location at the floor level. Establishing the NextNav testbed near Paris marks a pivotal milestone in the company’s vision of delivering next-generation 3D GPS services to Europe. NextNav endeavours to furnish exact 3D position, navigation, and timing (PNT) information with its ground-based system. 

Currently available in over 4,400 cities and towns throughout the United States, and undergoing deployment in Japan, NextNav’s Pinnacle technology has proved invaluable by providing critical vertical “z-axis” data says the company. Independent tests have demonstrated that the technology can achieve 94% accuracy at the floor level, surpassing other alternatives. 

The announcement of the testbed in France closely follows the release of a recent report by the European Joint Research Centre (JRC), which lauded NextNav for its accuracy in providing vertical location at the floor level, as well as its ability to serve as a resilient layer for traditional GPS services. 

The JRC report also recognised NextNav’s TerraPoiNT resilient PNT technology as a mature solution that meets and surpasses relevant benchmarks for acting as a resilient layer for existing GPS and GNSS technologies. In a previous 2021 report, the US Department of Transportation (DOT) conducted tests and found TerraPoiNT to be the sole commercial alternative PNT solution capable of meeting identified needs in “all applicable use case scenarios.”