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What’s new: A report about a Chinese paper describing how 5G signals could, with little change in infrastructure, complement GNSS to improve positioning, especially in urban environments.
Why it’s important:
- Urban canyons can be a challenge for GNSS services.
- The report discusses how this could be done fairly easily by existing 5G providers.
What else to know:
- The general consensus of the PNT community is that a system-of-systems approach is needed to ensure users have the services they need.
- Another recent Chinese paper described how integrating eLoran signals and GNSS can improve resilience and performance.
- GNSS will be the cornerstone of PNT architectures for the indefinite future. The key to resilience will be pairing them with other sources.
When 5G networks bolster satellite navigation
by Riko Seibo
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Dec 26, 2025
Finding accurate positions in dense urban areas remains difficult for satellite-based navigation systems, where high-rise buildings and signal blockages can cause large errors or complete loss of service. A recent study outlines a deeply integrated positioning method that combines commercial 5G New Radio (NR) signals with Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) to address these issues. By reinforcing 5G signal tracking and tightly merging it with satellite measurements, the approach improves both ranging stability and overall positioning accuracy in demanding city environments.
