BPS is a GPS alternative that nobody's heard of

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What BPS Is and What It Can Actually Do

  • BPS (Broadcast Positioning System) piggybacks on ATSC 3.0 TV broadcasts to provide precise time and, with enough towers, 2D position.
  • In practice it’s currently experimental: only a handful of towers are active, mostly for timing; full navigation is not yet deployed.
  • With a single tower you can get a stable time reference (or just a high-accuracy frequency reference), but not your position, since path delay is unknown.
  • Positioning requires multiple towers with known locations and good geometry; co-located TV antennas (e.g., many stations on one mast) severely degrade accuracy.

Coverage, Usefulness, and Alternatives

  • BPS is expected to work best in populated areas, with better indoor penetration and much higher transmit power than GPS, making jamming harder.
  • Rural areas, mountains, and open water will still need GNSS; many commenters see BPS as a supplement or timing backup, not a true standalone replacement.
  • Similar concepts exist for DVB-T and other terrestrial signals; non‑cooperative radio sources can be exploited for timing, positioning, and even passive radar.
  • Some view the main realistic role as “rebroadcasting GPS time” (or other primary sources) for resilient timing rather than independent navigation.

ATSC 3.0, DRM, and Privacy Concerns

  • BPS’s fate is tightly coupled to ATSC 3.0 adoption, which many see as stalled: modest quality gains, heavy DRM, and little consumer benefit.
  • Users report poor real-world ATSC 3.0 experiences (DRM, codec issues, weak software support), and worry OTA may “die on this hill.”
  • The Dedicated Return Channel and service-usage reporting specs define fine-grained viewer tracking (down to seconds), often via IP backhaul and possibly RF uplink.
  • There is strong concern that BPS could be combined with ATSC 3.0 telemetry to link precise location with detailed viewing data.

PNT Resilience and Jamming Context

  • Several comments stress the strategic need for diverse Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems as GPS jamming/spoofing becomes easier.
  • Other countries maintain or expand terrestrial systems (eLoran-like), while the US dismantled Omega and Loran-C, increasing dependence on GPS.
  • Some argue jamming can’t be “beaten,” only worked around with dead reckoning, inertial systems, and map matching, all of which have limits.

Business Case and Adoption Skepticism

  • Broadcasters must invest in timing hardware and engineering with no clear revenue stream beyond vague promises of location-targeted ads.
  • Several commenters doubt BPS will ever be a widely used, standalone PNT system without government mandate or funding, and see it mainly as niche timing infrastructure.