Protecting the Lower 900MHz Band: What the Security Industry Needs to Know

A proposal currently before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could put billions of devices at risk—from home alarm systems to carbon monoxide detectors to public safety communications. On May 11, 2026, the Security Industry Association (SIA) hosted a webinar to brief industry stakeholders on the potential impact and what’s being done to push back.

VIDEO: Interference Ahead? Why the Security Industry Is Fighting a Monopolistic Wireless Spectrum Proposal

What’s at Risk

The lower 900MHz band (902–928MHz) has been a home to unlicensed devices operating under FCC Part 15 rules for roughly 40 years, enabling an enormous ecosystem of low-power devices that consumers and businesses rely on daily. Security sensors, RFID readers, medical pendants, panic alarms, fire detection systems and electronic access control all share this band—and all depend on its stability.

That stability is now under threat. A single company, NextNav, has petitioned the FCC with a monopolistic proposal to restructure the band by carving out a 5MHz uplink channel and a 10MHz downlink channel for a high-power terrestrial network intended to serve as a backup GPS (positioning, navigation and timing, or PNT) system. The proposed downlink alone would transmit at roughly 4,000 watts.

Howard Waltzman, a partner at Mayer Brown and former chief telecommunications and internet counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee, put the interference problem in plain terms.

“Think about a library,” said Waltzman. “You think about people sitting at desks in a library, everyone whispering. Now imagine somebody walks through that library with a bullhorn. Everyone’s conversations are interfered with, and that is effectively what NextNav has proposed to do in the lower 900MHz band.”

The Technical Evidence

SIA commissioned a technical study from Pericle Communications that modeled NextNav’s proposal against real-world representative security devices. The results were unambiguous. Waltzman summarized the core finding: the study demonstrated “complete incompatibility” between trying to have a full-power 5G network running in the same space as these low-powered unlicensed devices used for life safety.

Critically, the interference problem runs in both directions. Not only would NextNav’s signal render most Part 15 devices unusable across large portions of their service area, but the billions of unlicensed devices attempting to communicate would also generate intolerable interference back to NextNav’s own network—undermining the backup PNT solution it claims to deliver.

Broad Opposition, Viable Alternatives

Opposition to the petition has been substantial. More than 1,000 industry comments in opposition have been filed at the FCC, representing utilities, transportation, retail and the security sector. Four major public safety associations—the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International and tNational Sheriffs’ Association— filed a joint letter urging the FCC to deny the petition. Congress has also weighed in, with the House Appropriations Financial Services Committee advancing language that would prohibit FCC funds from being used to reconfigure the band for high-power terrestrial operations.

Importantly, SIA and its allies are not opposing backup GPS on principle.

As Lauren Bresette, SIA’s senior manager of government relations, noted, “we do support the idea of a backup GPS system. We’re very supportive of having an alternative that works and is reliable—but there are other options that would not have to utilize this band.”

The U.S. Department of Transportation is actively testing alternatives involving TV broadcast airwaves, radio broadcast airwaves and other satellite and terrestrial solutions—none of which would disrupt the existing unlicensed device ecosystem.

What Technology Professionals Should Do Now

The FCC is expected to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking on PNT alternatives sometime this summer. Both relevant FCC dockets remain open for comment.

SIA encourages all security industry professionals and security/life-safety technology firms to review the Pericle study, support SIA’s ongoing advocacy and consider submitting individual comments detailing device-specific impacts. Resources, including a concise two-pager and the full technical study, are available on SIA’s website.

The lower 900MHz band has quietly underpinned modern safety infrastructure for decades. Keeping it that way will require the industry to stay engaged.

In creating this blog, content from SIA’s “Interference Ahead?” webinar was summarized using multiple large language models and reviewed by human editors.