Why 900 MHz Technology Is Crucial for Reliable Alarm Monitoring

4.16.25 – SIW -By Paul Rothman

Discover why the ongoing battle over the 900 MHz band between NextNav, the FCC, and industry stakeholders is crucial for integrators seeking reliable alarm monitoring solutions.

The Skinny

• Security industry alarmed: NextNav’s proposal to take over the Lower 900 MHz band threatens unlicensed devices like alarms, video surveillance cameras, smart home tech, and critical infrastructure tools, sparking pushback from major security trade groups.
• Potential disruption: Experts warn it could cause massive interference, potentially disabling devices like Z-Wave and other systems that rely on this frequency for essential communications.
• Lobbying battle heats up: Industry leaders including SIA, ESA, Amazon, and Google are actively lobbying the FCC to protect access to this spectrum, citing risks to public safety and national infrastructure.

The Lower 900 MHz Band of spectrum is used by millions of part 15 devices, including alarm, electronic access, and security camera technologies to protect homes, small businesses, and critical infrastructure.

A company called NextNav has petitioned the FCC to reconfigure the Lower 900 MHz band to grant them exclusive rights to the majority of the spectrum to create a terrestrial system that would serve as a backup to GPS in the United States.

This has created significant alarm in the security industry, and trade associations, including the Security Industry Association and Electronic Security Association, have mobilized to lobby and fight against this proposal. “We support the protection of unlicensed device use in this band so that the technologies used to protect public safety and American families can continue to operate in a competitive environment that drives growth and innovation,” SIA said in a statement.

“NextNav is making a financial play for this bandwidth,” says Avi Rosenthal, Chairperson for the Z-Wave Alliance. “They are using the leverage of a terrestrial GPS to convince the federal government that using this bandwidth is the only solution. The truth is, they really want to sell the bandwidth to the major carriers.”

What it Means for Devices

The big question that remains unanswered is what will happen if NextNav is successful in taking over the Lower 900 MHz band. Band 8 – which refers to a specific frequency range within the 900 MHz band used for mobile communication – is used for both 2G GSM and 4G LTE technologies.

“Today, the FCC limits Band 8 to 1 watt,” Rosenthal explains. “What NextNav wants to do is crank up that power to full cellular capability, which will wipe out everything else communicating in 900 MHz.”

NextNav has submitted a study to the FCC demonstrating that 5G operations can successfully coexist with unlicensed devices in the Lower 900 MHz band; however industry experts remain dubious.

“If you think about it, there is so much riding in that spectrum area today – it is everything from alarm transmitters to Zigbee and Z-Wave home automation systems,” explains Morgan Hertel, VP of Technology and Innovation for monitoring provider Rapid Response. “There is a plethora of things that operate in that frequency – many of which have very loose controls over how they’re manufactured. So what’s going to happen at a large scale is really an unknown at this point. You can talk about lab results all day, but that doesn’t necessarily change what happens in the real world. It could be no problem, or it could be a disaster for us.”

Rosenthal explains what it would mean for Z-Wave devices: “Z-Wave, at its core level, does something that’s called ‘listen before talk.’ That means when the radio turns on, it listens to the frequency to see if there’s any noise before it will speak. Today, it is relatively quiet. When the radio comes on and listens, there’s nothing more than some background noise, and so it speaks. If NextNav is screaming at the top of their lungs when [a Z-Wave device] asks if it is clear, it never gets a chance to speak.”

Would that mean every Z-Wave device stops working at that point? Again, the answer is unclear. “Will every single one stop working? Probably not. Will the vast majority stop working? Absolutely. There are implications in dozens of different industries that are not even being talked about yet – toll collectors won’t be able to toll the roads; railroad signaling won’t be able to move any trains; and there are all kinds of implications in healthcare.”

The Z-Wave Alliance is part of a group that Rosenthal calls the Gang of Five, which includes wireless communications technologies WI-SUN, Wi-Fi, LoRa, RAIN RFID, and Z-Wave – all of which communicate at the 900 megahertz level. He says they are publishing their own technical paper to counter NextNav’s.

“NextNav has written a number of reports, and we’ve read their papers and replied to them, and we’ve proven that what they’ve said doesn’t hold water,” Rosenthal explains. “They claim to have done real-world tests, but there is no test bed right now to definitively show that anything will either work or not work.”

Lobbying Continues

SIA, ESA, Z-Wave and some of the biggest technology companies in the world – think smart home device manufacturers like Amazon and Google – have all joined forces to attempt to stop NextNav. “[The Z-Wave Alliance is] hiring a law firm and a lobbying firm to make sure that the Notice of Inquiry for the FCC, which is due April 28th, has our feedback in it,” Rosenthal says.

SIA and ESA have also deployed lobbyists on this issue, and it was a hot topic during the third annual Security Hill Day, held in early March (Read more at www.securityinfowatch.com/55275697).

Hertel, who is a contributor to The Monitoring Association (TMA)’s Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC), says TMA is also taking an active role in the lobbying efforts. “I think everybody’s really lobbying, but the problem is, we are a small industry compared to the communications industry,” Hertel says. “But we are all about life safety, and that’s important to Congress. So we’ll see.”

“We will keep fighting the good fight,” Rosenthal says. “The good news is we’ve got the U.S. Department of Transportation on our side. We have the Department of Homeland Security on our side.”

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) had taken a position in the ongoing FCC proceeding; however, in the only comments filed by NAB in the FCC docket, they explicitly say, “NAB takes no position on the proposal to reconfigure this band.” 

About the Author

Paul Rothman | Editor-in-Chief/Security Business

Paul Rothman is Editor-in-Chief of Security Business magazine. Email him your comments and questions at prothman@securitybusinessmag.com. Access the current issue, full archives and apply for a free subscription at www.securitybusinessmag.com.