With new leadership, NextNav and Anterix boast of 900MHz momentum

NextNav and Anterix both own tiny slivers of the 900MHz band, and both sport relatively new leadership. And both are expressing optimism about the future.

"It is truly an honor to be leading this great organization, and I'm excited with all that lies ahead for the company," said Anterix CEO Scott Lang on the company's latest earnings call. Lang replaces Rob Schwartz, who stepped down from his Anterix CEO position just last month.

"This is an exciting time for our business," echoed NextNav CEO Mariam Sorond. Sorond previously worked at VMware, CableLabs and Dish Network, and was named NextNav's new CEO last year.

Anterix and NextNav are targeting significantly different groups of customers with their respective spectrum holdings. NextNav is pursuing an ambitious plan to repurpose its 900MHz holdings as an alternative to GPS location technology – as well as potentially a supplement for 5G networks. Anterix, meanwhile, has been working to sell or lease its own 900MHz holdings to utility companies.

Interestingly, both NextNav and Anterix are hoping the incoming Trump administration will smile on their latest spectrum proposals.

NextNav

Earlier this year, NextNav asked the FCC to reconfigure a sliver of its 900MHz holdings to support positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services and 5G. The company said this would create an alternative to critical GPS signals that could be hacked by US adversaries.

NextNav's proposal is now wending its way through the FCC. And it's garnering plenty of comments.

"Based on the overwhelming opposition due to the potential harm posed by the approval of the NextNav petition, and how NetNav's insufficient detail to address those potential harms, we respectfully request that the FCC dismiss the NextNav petition," wrote a large number of trade associations and commercial industry groups in a new filing to the FCC. Among the groups signing the filing: Airlines for America, American Petroleum Institute, Enterprise Wireless Alliance, Idaho Trucking Association, Incompas, LoRa Alliance, Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), Wi-Fi Alliance and Utilities Technology Council.

But, on NextNav's recent earnings call, Sorond waved off that opposition. "There were no real surprises or showstoppers," she said of hundreds of filings on the topic.

Sorond also said that the incoming Trump administration – and specifically FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr, Trump's anticipated choice to lead the FCC – may approve NextNav's proposal.

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