Expert: CBRS Shows Dynamic Sharing Works, While Global 6 GHz Is in Reach
The citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) band has moved beyond the experimental stage and demonstrated its effectiveness, Salt Point Strategies’ Dave Wright said last week during a webinar hosted by consulting firm Senza Fili. CBRS “works,” said Wright, former president of the OnGo Alliance, which promotes the CBRS. “We’ve been doing it for five years. We’ve got 420,000 base station radios operating in the band,” and “we’ve had zero reports of interference” to the military systems that share the spectrum.
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“Static allocation and static management of spectrum, at least in the low and the midbands, has probably gotten us about as far as we’re going to get,” Wright said. “Introducing more dynamic management of the spectrum … is going to be critical,” as “there just isn’t any more greenfield spectrum.”
Wright said sharing in the 6 GHz band moves technology another step forward, making dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) “global” in its reach. CBRS has proven the success of DSS in the U.S., “but it has been a U.S.-specific thing.” He noted that 6 GHz automated frequency coordination is spreading to other countries including Canada, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.
Both CBRS and 6 GHz are “really proving their value,” Wright added. For example, they’re enabling private 5G and LTE, he said. “We really need to look at where the demand is.” Policymakers tend to favor licensed spectrum because they like the money that comes from spectrum auctions, he said. But unlicensed spectrum represents “hundreds of billions and even trillions of dollars in GDP contribution in countries like the U.S.,” he argued. “We probably don’t want to just think about spectrum policy based on auction revenue,” which is “very easy to assess,” but it’s only one measure of the value of a band.