NextNav and Broadcom Sign Technology License Agreement to Drive Broad Availability of Ubiquitous High Accuracy Indoor and Vertical Positioning

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 2, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, NextNav announced that Broadcom Corporation has acquired a commercial license to NextNav's Metropolitan Beacon System ("MBS") technology.  This agreement enables Broadcom to integrate NextNav's advanced location technology into its mass-market  global navigation satellite system (GNSS), connectivity and mobility platforms.  MBS is an innovative "terrestrial constellation," which brings GNSS-like performance to indoor and urban environments where satellite-based positioning is either unavailable or significantly degraded.

"As a leader in GNSS technology, Broadcom is uniquely positioned to drive innovation in the increasingly important indoor and urban environments," said Charlie Abraham, Broadcom Vice President & General Manager, GNSS Products. "NextNav's MBS technology provides a high fidelity wide area indoor location capability that is complementary to Broadcom's world class Mobile Wireless Solutions."

NextNav's MBS shares many operating principles with GNSS satellite constellations, but because the NextNav beacons are installed terrestrially instead of in space, there is sufficient signal strength to function reliably indoors and in urban markets where a clear view of the sky is unavailable.  MBS is deployed much like a cellular network, to provide consistent indoor positioning to every building within a covered metropolitan area.  Further, MBS offers both accurate horizontal positioning and highly accurate altitude information, a particularly important capability for the urban and indoor areas where GNSS systems tend to be most challenged.   

"We designed MBS to complement GNSS services and to leverage existing platforms and applications, minimizing implementation costs and easing service adoption.  Given Broadcom's proven track record in wireless device location, we are pleased to welcome them as a technology licensee.  Broadcom's capabilities and scale will ensure broad availability of the high-quality indoor positioning delivered by our MBS network," said Gary Parsons, CEO of NextNav.

NextNav's MBS network is built using its own FCC licensed spectrum and is currently deployed across forty large U.S. markets.  The superior performance of the NextNav location technology was recently highlighted in side-by-side tests versus multiple technologies, the results of which were published by the FCC on Mar 18, 2013.  The trial compared the performance of location systems across urban, suburban and rural areas in the San Francisco Bay Area for determining the location of callers during emergency calls (E911), a critical case for mobile phone users.  NextNav was the only technology capable of reporting a valid height or altitude estimate, enabling floor-level positioning.  NextNav's horizontal accuracy results were also impressive, reducing first responder "search rings" by 90% over its nearest competitor.

About NextNav

NextNav is deploying a revolutionary positioning technology to allow mobile phones and other devices to reliably determine their location in indoor and urban environments where GPS signals can't be received.  NextNav's technology combines accurate horizontal positioning with floor-level height precision.  Delivered over a managed network with carrier-grade dependability and metropolitan-wide coverage, NextNav's positioning services are designed for E911, public safety and emergency response as well as the multitude of consumer and commercial applications that require precise indoor location accuracy.  Based in Sunnyvale, CA and McLean, VA, NextNav is working with the Public Safety community and major technology partners to embed its capability into new GPS chipsets and mobile phones.

More information is available at http://www.nextnav.com.

SOURCE NextNav