In a presentation to the National PNT Advisory Board last week, ATIS, the telecommunications industry standards body, strongly urged:
- Great care licensing transmissions in bands adjacent to GPS
- Establishment of an Alternate PNT System to GPS, and describing the benefits of eLoran
- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to authorize use of non-US GNSS in the United States
- Open vulnerability testing of precision timing GPS receivers, adding that measuring carrier to noise is insufficient to characterize timing degradation, and
- NIST and USNO to work cooperatively with ATIS on GPS vulnerability and backup issues.
ATIS has made some of these points before in letters to the Department of Homeland Security, filings with the FCC, and responding to federal register notices placed by the Department of Transportation.
This is the first time that we know of, though, that the telecommunications industry has outlined a series of system and policy actions to Protect, Toughen, and Augment the GPS signals upon they depend.
The PNT Advisory Board has made similar recommendations to the government with little result.
A great presentation by ATIS. We hope they also bring their message directly to members of the new administration and Congress.
