Iridium Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: IRDM), a leading provider of global voice, data, and PNT satellite services, announced it has been selected by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) for an award through its Complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (CPNT) Action Plan Rapid Phase Award II to support a broad network deployment of Iridium® PNT services. Iridium is working with T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) to launch live-site activations across the United States, which delivers state-of-the-art, 5G network complementary timing synchronization that further strengthens their network resilience and helps to ensure customers enjoy the most reliable experience possible.
As the U.S. government's civil lead for PNT, the U.S. Department of Transportation CPNT Action Plan is designed to evaluate mature and commercially available CPNT technologies in order to strengthen PNT resilience and enhance the safety of critical infrastructure, like 5G networks. Through this contract, T-Mobile will expand its installation of Iridium PNT receivers to 90 additional live 5G network sites in geographically diverse locations. Iridium PNT will help protect against GPS disruptions that cause downtime and compromise the data integrity and performance of 5G networks, which rely on coordinated, precise timing to deliver the necessary speed, capacity, and reliability of service to end-users.
"It is essential for the U.S. to strengthen the resilience of our 5G wireless networks and other critical infrastructure that relies on PNT," said Dr. Michael O'Connor, executive vice president, PNT, Iridium. "Our partnership with an industry-leading company like T-Mobile underscores the proven performance of our solution and reinforces why it's the gold standard for PNT services like timing synchronization."
T-Mobile will also perform nominal and adverse user equipment exercises at its testing range. The indoor location, which includes the necessary wireless infrastructure, provides an ideal setting for DOT, Iridium, and T-Mobile to observe and record results.
Capable of sub-100-nanosecond accuracy—better than a millionth of a second—and secured using cryptographic techniques, Iridium PNT signals are 1,000 times stronger than GNSS systems like GPS and work inside buildings with no need for an outdoor antenna. The service is delivered by Iridium's low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellation, which provides truly global weather-resilient L-band connectivity.
