Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
CHAIRMAN AJIT PAI

Re: 	Waiver of Part 25 Licensing Requirements for Receive-Only Earth Stations Operating with the Galileo Radionavigation-Satellite Service, IB Docket No. 17-16.

Parents relying on paper maps for driving directions.  Pilots using bubble sextants to navigate flights.  “Is this the real life?  Is this just fantasy?” QUEEN, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (Elektra 1975).
  Actually, it’s the world before GPS.

For eons, navigation meant primarily “[o]pen your eyes, look up to the skies and see.”  But thankfully, over the past several decades, we’ve made substantial technological advances.  In particular, we’ve developed space-based positioning, navigation, and timing services, known in the United States as GPS.  And with today’s Order, we’re taking an important step to make these services even better.  

Specifically, we’re granting the European Union’s version of GPS, called Galileo, access to the U.S. market.  And we’re ensuring that the signals of the Galileo system are interoperable and compatible with GPS.  All this means that earth station receivers of non-Federal government users will be permitted to use two Galileo signals in the same bands where GPS operates, increasing the availability, reliability, and resiliency of services.  Or, in English: those with satellite-connected devices will have more pairs of eyes looking out for them.  

This breakthrough serves the public interest across many areas of our economy, including the automotive, aviation, rail, maritime, and agriculture industries.  It will also produce public safety benefits by reducing risks of accidents and disaster, aiding emergency response, and synchronizing power grids and critical infrastructure.  And with our action today, we’ll hopefully make it easier for mariners to find their way to their destination “any way the wind blows.”  

This Order builds upon more than a decade of cooperation between the United States and the European Commission.  And it wouldn’t have come about but for the team that worked so diligently on this important item: Jennifer Gilsenan, Karl Kensinger, Bob Nelson, Sankar Persaud, Tom Sullivan, Troy Tanner, and Merissa Velez of the International Bureau; Patrick Forester, Julie Knapp, Paul Murray, and Ron Repasi of the Office of Engineering and Technology; Deborah Broderson, David Horowitz, and Bill Richardson of the Office of General Counsel; David Furth of the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau; and Charles Mathias of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.



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