Reallocation of GPS Spectrum Could Compromise Global Systems

By Wendy Lubetkin
Washington File European Correspondent

Geneva -- Preserving spectrum -- or "real estate in space" -- for the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites is not only essential to building the global information infrastructure but is truly a matter of health and public safety, according to U.S. government officials and representatives of the transportation industry.

Over the last 15 years, the Global Positioning System has become increasingly embedded in emergency operations, air and maritime transportation, financial networks and electric power utilities around the world.

The pin-point positioning made possible by the constellation of 24 satellites provides important public service benefits -- from safe airline navigation to responding to 911 emergency calls to helping farmers plan their crops, or locating hikers lost in the Alps. But in recent years, the GPS spectrum allocation has come under growing pressure from commercial interests, especially from major telecommunications companies in Europe that want to build on this "beach-front property" in space for mobile satellite telephone ventures. In 1997, a proposal to reallocate a portion of GPS's spectrum to commercial mobile satellite services was narrowly averted due to the efforts of the United States and many other nations, especially in the developing world, that have come to rely on GPS. Now the future of air navigation and the activities of millions of today's users of satellite navigation services will be decided in Istanbul next year when World Radio Communication (WRC) Conference-2000 opens. "We are concerned that short-term commercial interests may be placed over the broader interests of international safety and the development of the global information infrastructure," says Scott Pace, a policy analyst with RAND's Science and Technology Policy Institute.

At the last World Radio Communication Conference held in 1997 in Geneva, a proposal (Resolution 220) was put forward that a portion of the band used by GPS should be shared with satellites providing mobile telephone services.

The WRC conference did not adopt the proposal, but resolved to complete a study of the potential for spectrum sharing and to make a final decision in three year's time at the Istanbul conference. The band used by GPS is by no means exclusive U.S. real estate. It is shared with Russia's Global Orbiting Navigation System, and would most likely be the future location of Europe's planned Galileo system.

This band has been identified by the international transportation industry as the only frequency able to support the spectrum requirements for the emerging Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), a system that promises enormous benefits not only in transport but also in the development of precision agriculture, tracking vehicles and providing emergency services.

Introducing mobile satellite services would produce interference and put at risk global navigation and safety systems, in which thousands of millions of dollars have already been invested.

GPS is a one-way receive-only broadcast, very different from the two-way communications transmissions from mobile satellite systems. International studies recently completed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have shown that "sharing" spectrum with other communications systems is not feasible and would compromise the "continuous worldwide availability" of GPS.

"This is a unique piece of land. If it is damaged, there is no place else to go." said Pace.

The 21 transport ministers of APEC, which includes Asia's major economies as well as the United States and Russia, earlier this month adopted a joint ministerial statement endorsing the retention of the spectrum band for exclusive use by radio navigation services.

The APEC statement recognizes the importance of protecting the integrity of the GNSS spectrum for safety of life, environmental protection and economic applications and services, including air, marine and other modes of transportation.

James Hollansworth, an expert on space electronics at the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, points out that the future International Space Station will be equipped with GPS for vehicles docking the shuttle. "Many of the experiments which will be conducted by scientists on the station may require use of GPS for location determination," he added.

From Japanese car navigation manufacturers to mobile phone companies in the United Arabic Emirates, businesses around the globe are basing the development of new commercial technologies on the GPS system.

Like the Internet, GPS has become "a global resource" whose use is free of charge to anyone, anywhere on the planet, Hollansworth said. "GPS is a classic example of a public good: producing a standard that people can exploit and base innovations on."