CBRS is Finally Set to Go!!!!

CBRS Is Finally Set to Go

CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) has been discussed and evaluated for what seems like years, but in reality, only a few years.  It now appears that everything is ready to go.  We even have a new brand name, OnGo, for the LTE-based CBRS technology. The FCC still has to devise how licensed access to the 3.5 GHz band in the United States should work under the Priority Access Licenses (PAL) system, but we are ready to go with the first, and possibly more exciting, deployments under General Authorized Access (GAA), which allows unlicensed use of the band. This is the most innovative part of CBRS, which has a clever way to combine the flexibility of unlicensed spectrum and reliability of licensed spectrum: With GAA, enterprises, venue owners, network operators and cities can all deploy private or public networks in this band, alongside each other. We should expect a higher spectrum utilization, new business models, and better support for enterprise use cases.

The CBRS ecosystem has been idling for the last few years and vendors are now stepping up to the plate to deliver on all the early promises.

But in the long term, with some modifications, the CBRS framework can be adopted in other countries and other bands, and could create a blueprint for spectrum sharing, improved spectrum efficiency, and larger roles for the enterprise in wireless. And, with GAA access to CBRS spectrum tied to real estate control, enterprise and venue owners could gain an important role in deciding how to use the spectrum, without the need of a license. With CBRS, control of the property gives you control of the spectrum.

CBRS could unlock billions of dollars

Recently, moving forward has stalled at the FCC as they seem more focused on licensing millimeter-wave spectrum first, before getting to the CBRS band. Federated Wireless has made a logical proposal to the FCC to allow the use of the GAA (unlicensed) portion of the band in the short term, before getting to the PALs later. This is entirely logical and would allow the market to develop for CBRS in the unlicensed area. The first CBRS networks have been deployed on a trial basis and more are moving very quickly to be deployed in real world applications. 2019 will be a watershed year for CBRS. If the FCC balks at further opening CBRS, networks will be delayed until later in 2019, but the eventuality of the band opening up is a foregone conclusion. As previously stated in my Article of August 2018, the opportunities are enormous and people need to wake up to the magnitude of this innovation band.