FCC Clears Full Deployment of Private Navigation Satellite Network
Company Says October Launch Will Begin Buildout of More Than 250-Satellite Constellation
The Federal Communications Commission has authorized Xona Space Systems to broadcast navigation signals from a planned constellation of more than 250 satellites, clearing what the company describes as its last regulatory hurdle before full-scale deployment.
The authorization, announced Monday, expands an earlier FCC license granted for Xona’s Pulsar-0 demonstration satellite, which has been broadcasting from low Earth orbit since June 2025. Xona, based in Burlingame, Calif., said it expects to launch the first six satellites of its production constellation in October, with additional spacecraft already under construction at its Burlingame facility.
The company said the new authorization allows Pulsar to transmit alongside the center frequencies used by GPS and other government-run navigation systems, rather than on a separate, less-crowded band. According to the release, Xona spent years demonstrating that a stronger commercial signal could coexist with GPS, aviation safety systems and other navigation services without causing interference.
Xona said Pulsar is designed to deliver centimeter-level positioning and signals up to 100 times stronger than GPS, along with cryptographic protection against spoofing and a software-defined architecture the company says can be updated after satellites reach orbit. Those performance figures come from the company; the release does not cite an independent test result or named engineer confirming them.
More than six billion devices worldwide already use GNSS signals, according to the release, and Xona said manufacturers can add Pulsar compatibility through software and firmware updates rather than new hardware. The company has also launched a program called Pulsar Verified for outside firms building chipsets, receivers and other equipment meant to work with the system.
Xona described itself as becoming “the only FCC-authorized private navigation constellation to operate next to nation-state systems from the United States, Europe, China, and Russia” — a characterization made in the company’s own release rather than independently confirmed. GPS, Europe’s Galileo, China’s BeiDou and Russia’s GLONASS remain the primary government-operated systems in that band.
The release did not include on-the-record comments from Xona executives; the only quoted language was a pull-quote in the release itself describing the authorization as “the final major regulatory milestone before Xona begins production deployment.”
Xona’s next milestone, by its own account, is the October launch of its first six production satellites.