NextNav Q1 2026 Earnings Call - FCC Rulemaking Advances as NextNav Demonstrates RFID Coexistence and Drone Sensing

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: Thank you. I would now like to turn the call over to Jared Pollack. Please go ahead.

Jared Pollack, Moderator/IR Professional, NextNav: Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to NextNav’s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Participating on today’s call are Mariam Sorond, NextNav’s Chief Executive Officer, and Tim Gray, NextNav’s Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that this call will include certain statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of the words may, anticipate, believe, expect, intend, should, could, and similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements, which may relate to NextNav’s forecast of future results, future prospects, developments, and business strategies are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, many of which are outside of NextNav’s control and could cause actual results to differ.

In particular, such forward-looking statements include the achievement of certain FCC-related milestones and FCC approvals, NextNav’s projections, plans, objectives, and expectations, and NextNav’s future business strategies and competitive position. These statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon the forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date made, and NextNav undertakes no commitment to update or revise the forward-looking statements except as required by law. For additional information regarding risks and uncertainties, please refer to the risk factors and other disclosures contained in the company’s filings with the SEC. Following prepared remarks, the company will host an operator-led question and answer session. In addition, a replay of our discussion will be posted to the company’s investor relations website. I’d now like to turn the call over to Ms. Sorond.

Please go ahead, Miriam.

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: Thank you, Jared. Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us today. As we have discussed previously, the FCC moved forward to formally send a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or NPRM, focused on promoting the development of PNT technologies and solutions through a standard interagency review process. We believe this represents a critical step that underscores the FCC’s focus on addressing the national security urgency of identifying resilient backups and complements to GPS. This positive milestone was achieved in rapid time and with extraordinary momentum under this administration. We know the draft NPRM continues to proceed through the interagency review processes, including review by the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs or OIRA. These processes are designed to incorporate perspectives from all stakeholders, we are actively supporting that work. While OIRA reviews are relatively new for FCC rulemakings, review across executive branch agencies has been a longstanding process.

Importantly, we continue to work constructively with the FCC and other government agencies to support these processes. The timing remains subject to these ongoing reviews. The FCC has a long history of evaluating technically complex and nationally important issues and finding pathways to successful resolution. Its process has worked for decades, time and time again, including in spectrum matters more complex than ours. What we believe has been particularly constructive about this proceeding is how the public comment process that followed the FCC’s March 2025 Notice of Inquiry, or NOI, accelerated the discussion. The NOI generated a depth and volume of responses typically seen following an NPRM, surfacing various matters earlier than usual. As a result, NextNav has been addressing what are often post-NPRM matters earlier on, which we believe has made this proceeding more advanced at this stage than comparable proceedings.

This is in part why activities such as joint testing with the railroads are occurring today. We believe this approach is constructive as bringing later-stage considerations into the record earlier may improve the efficiency of a post-NPRM phase moving towards report and order. In addition to the ongoing interagency review of the draft NPRM, as we have discussed previously, the FCC has granted experimental authorizations to NextNav to support both our 5G PNT network testing in Santa Clara County, California, and joint testing with railroads at their testing facility in Pueblo, Colorado. Our 5G PNT network testing marks an important step towards commercialization. I will reiterate that our ongoing network testing is moving in parallel to the NPRM process, and while railroad testing is relevant to the broader record with the FCC, neither of these efforts are a prerequisite to the FCC issuing an NPRM.

In addition to our ongoing collaboration with railroad stakeholders, we continue to engage with the tolling industry. Last week, we attended the IBTTA Technology Summit in Orlando, Florida, where we spoke with tolling technology vendors, operators, and IBTTA executives to express our interest in pursuing a collaborative approach to coexistence considerations and validation efforts. Based on our intention to work with the vendors and operators to ensure protection of tolling operations. With our progress, it is not surprising that we’ve recently seen a significant increase in opposition activity. This increased activity has included a recent attempt to stall the NPRM through the House Committee on Appropriations. This attempt to circumvent the FCC has concerned government and industry, as it is widely viewed as a dangerous precedent for U.S. spectrum policy. Former House Committee on Energy and Commerce Chair Greg Walden described the attempt as interfering with the FCC’s process.

As Walden specifically noted, "It’s really early in the process to drop a bunker buster bomb on the FCC technology review process." We agree, and further view these attempts as simply underscoring the strength of the existing record in the NOI proceeding, a record that led the FCC to advance an NPRM. We fully trust the FCC and interagency processes and firmly believe concerns can be addressed during an NPRM process.

Chairman Carr shared at an event in April that one of the biggest priorities for us at the FCC is to help support alternatives to GPS, and further said, "We want everyone that has a technology that could potentially be a complement to GPS to get a fair shot at any regulatory changes they might need." While we’ve seen increased opposition activity, we stand by our engineering and are proactively seeking to address concerns raised by stakeholders within industry and the Hill. In addition to our long history and continued constructive engagement with various federal agencies, we are continuing to build a highly targeted coalition of third-party supporters and actively engaging with both supporters and opponents on the Hill. We’re also placing emphasis on sharing real-world evidence that supports our engineering analysis in the record.

Just last week, we conducted a real-world coexistence demonstration using our 5G PNT network and a standard RFID reader with multiple RFID tags. This put recent claims about RFID interference to the test through a live demonstration at 20 feet between the 5G transmitter and the RFID reader, a setup that is far more extreme than seen in real-world circumstances. That test showed that RFID technologies are resilient by design and can continue to operate alongside 5G signals in the lower 900 megahertz band without operational impact. Outside of our regulatory development, NextNav continues to build momentum across the broader policy and industry ecosystem. We are actively participating in high-level dialogues, including at the Milken Global Conference last week and through my role on the CTIA Board of Directors, where discussions increasingly focused on AI and the critical need for additional spectrum to support AI in the immediate future.

At NextNav, we understand that wireless networks and reliable PNT are the underlying invisible infrastructure powering successful expansion of the AI systems that will define the next decade of the autonomous economy. Further, NextNav filed comments in the FCC’s proceeding in support of President Trump’s Unleashing American Drone Dominance. We’re excited to move into the next phase of sensing technologies and have joined the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation. The Department of Defense’s FutureG Office launched the OCUDU initiative and leads its ongoing development. Finally, as market dynamics evolve, we remain in active dialogue with potential partners across not only wireless carriers, but also satellite operators and big tech, among others, to help realize our strategic goal of enabling a 5G-based backup and complement to GPS.

From our perspective, what was already a constructive commercial environment has only improved as interest continues to expand for access to low-band spectrum. Taken together, we believe these developments reflect steady, disciplined progress across regulatory, technical, and strategic fronts. From our perspective, the engineering case for a viable GPS backup is well-supported by our technical study. We are equally confident in our position as a one of a one within a system of systems requiring capabilities that only NextNav can provide, a unique combination of wide-scale positioning, timing, and 3D geolocation services which are commercially viable and we believe can be made available during the current administration with swift action from the FCC. Moreover, our solution is future-proof and does not require taxpayer funding. Our conviction remains unchanged.

We see a path to resolving technical and policy questions within the time-tested FCC and interagency decision-making process as we continue to engage constructively with both supporters and our opponents. Our confidence is based in part on the knowledge that the FCC is historically renowned for getting the process right. With that, I will turn things over to Tim for a review of our financials. Tim?

Tim Gray, Chief Financial Officer, NextNav: Thank you, Miriam, and good afternoon, everyone. NextNav continues to be in a position of financial strength with a strong cash position and low band spectrum assets, with the potential to have a much more robust balance sheet in the near term. On liquidity, we finished the first quarter of 2026 with approximately $143 million in cash equivalents, and short-term investments. We are continuing to manage our use of capital and balance our approach to liquidity as we continue to move forward on our ambitious goals. It is important to note that we have a significant number of warrants expiring in October of this year that have the potential to deliver over $200 million in additional capital, depending on stock price performance. The redemption of these warrants would provide NextNav with significant additional resources and balance sheet strength going forward.

For our first quarter, a financial item of note. As a reminder, the gains or losses related to our outstanding private warrants and derivative liability fluctuate based on movements in our stock price. In the first quarter, we recognized gains of approximately $12.6 million associated with the change in the fair value of the derivative and warrants liability. These non-cash gains partially offset the company’s net loss for the quarter, resulting in a net loss of approximately $10.6 million. These accounting adjustments are primarily related to the financing transactions completed earlier in 2025, which strengthened the company’s balance sheet. With that, I’ll turn the call back over to the operator for questions. Operator?

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. As we enter Q&A, we ask that you please limit your input to 1 question and 1 follow-up. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press the star button followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. One moment please for your first question. Your first question comes from the line of Mike Crawford of B. Riley Securities. Please go ahead.

Mike Crawford, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Thank you. Would you mind just summarizing how much 900 megahertz spectrum NextNav currently owns and how this was acquired over time? What PNT precision gains would be enabled by a full 10 by 5 5G signal?

Tim Gray, Chief Financial Officer, NextNav: Hi, Mike. Thanks for the question. NextNav currently has rights to up 4 billion megahertz POP across the 900, the lower 900 MHz band. Our PNT simulations currently, which will be tested through our field efforts over in Santa Clara, show comparable to GPS performance, which is single-digit accuracy and timing synchronization to meet critical infrastructure needs.

Mike Crawford, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Well, okay. Thank you. Then for my follow-up question, just relates to how a drone, a physical AI instance would access the PRS reference signal embedded in 5G. Is there any other additional steps that would be required for these systems to access that signal?

Tim Gray, Chief Financial Officer, NextNav: I mean, first of all, let’s say we’re super excited about this new capability that we’re stepping into, which is sensing of drones as it becomes a really important issue for our national security. We really like the Department of Defense and the FutureG Office’s efforts for making sure that we have a solid technology and solution to this. What we basically are working with is the ability, and what’s really nice about it is that it’s the PRS signal in a 5G setting, not only provides positioning and timing capability. We really don’t have to do anything else with that signal to be able to then extract drone detection and sensing, which makes this a very attractive solution. I just want to emphasize solution, not just the technology.

One of the strengths of NextNav is that we provide solutions. That solution means that we not only are developing the tech, but we also have the spectrum and the licenses to be able to deploy that technology. That’s a very powerful statement that working across federal agencies and our national security interests and equities, they find it extremely compelling, and therefore, we’re excited to be joining OCUDU and start this journey.

Mike Crawford, Analyst, B. Riley Securities: Thank you.

Tim Gray, Chief Financial Officer, NextNav: Thank you.

Operator: Again, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Tim Horan of Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: Thanks, guys. On the sensing technology, is there something, does that tie into the PNT or is that, you know, unique to what you guys are doing from a PNT and technology perspective? Does, you know, does anyone else have that capability?

Tim Gray, Chief Financial Officer, NextNav: Thank you, Tim, for the question. It is the same PRS signal that you extract positioning and timing from that actually gets used to sense drones and objects at a certain elevation. The signal’s the same, the underlying 5G is the same, what we extract is through a technology that is spearheaded by the OCUDU Department of Defense. It’s called ISAC, which is Integrated Sensing Technologies that is also standards-based.

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: What nice thing about having an underlying 5G that evolves to 6G and 7G network is that you use standards-based technologies to not only get positioning and timing, but you’re also able to use that same signal within the same radio for being able to sense and detect drones.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: How unique is that capability? Does anyone else have that to your knowledge?

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: There’s a lot of companies. One thing about ISAC is it’s standards-based, and there’s a lot of vendors and, you know, it could be publicly about them. They’re developing the ISAC technology, which is 5G-based. What we provide is not just the tech and the underlying network, but we provide the solution. One of the problems is that, you know, you also need the spectrum to be able to deploy all of this on, which is a great, you know, sort of fit for us where we bring the spectrum and the tech to the table.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: Oh, that’s what I meant. I mean, the spectrum and the PNT as long as-

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: Yep

The technology is that’s fairly unique. Does anyone, I mean, it doesn’t sound like anyone else can replicate that type of sensing technology easily? Correct me if I’m wrong.

Right.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: That don’t serve the same service yet.

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: Exactly. That’s a really good point, right? You have Ericsson and among other RAN vendors are developing this technology. At the end of the day, they need a partner. They need someone to bring the spectrum to the table. We already have both. We’re working with a wide industry on this. It’s a very, I would say, very interesting technology and very interesting development that’s happening within the 5G network right now.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: The FAA is looking for, you know, they’re massively upgrading the systems and looking for ways to incorporate, you know, drones and other things. Are you working with that process at all?

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: What we started out is filing in the Drone Dominance proceeding to the FCC, which we’re super excited about, and what we’ve announced publicly is also separate than that, our OCUDU membership. That is what we’ve stated publicly. Of course, we’re talking to all the stakeholders on the vendor and also agency space about this.

Tim Horan, Analyst, Oppenheimer: Very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time. With that, I will now turn the call back over to Maryam Sorond, CEO, for final closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Mariam Sorond, Chief Executive Officer, NextNav: Thank you. In closing, we continue to engage constructively with key stakeholders as anticipated. Interagency review and FCC processes continue as it has in matters more complex than ours. At the same time, we’re building momentum towards commercialization and seeing expanding interest across the broader ecosystem. We continue to focus on our strategy and execution to achieve our goals. We are very proud of the progress we are making to deliver a resilient, future-proof, terrestrial complement and backup to GPS, strengthening U.S. economic and national security at a critical moment in time. Thank you, everyone.

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today’s call. We thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.