CBRS

The “jury’s still out” on whether the FCC’s 3.45 GHz auction was a success, said John Hunter, T-Mobile senior director-technology and engineering policy, during an FCBA wireless lunch Wednesday. Speakers welcomed the administration’s early steps on a national spectrum strategy (see 2303200044).

CommScope notified the FCC it’s suspending operations as a spectrum access system manager in the citizens broadband radio service band, effective April 1. “We will no longer be providing SAS services nor accepting CBSD [CBRS device] registrations,” said a notice posted Monday in docket 15-319: “In addition, CommScope will securely transfer all currently registered CBSDs to other Commission-approved SAS administrators by April 1.” The company will retain records not pertaining to federal incumbents for five years, the notice said. CommScope was one of the original SAS providers, along with Google and Federated Wireless. CTIA noted in a report last year that CommScope had effectively abandoned the market earlier in the year. “While Commscope remained silent about its reasons one can reasonably surmise it was due to a lack of expected demand,” the report said: “Companies do not often abandon profitable lines of business.”

The FCC Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology sought comment Friday on Samsung Electronics America's request in August for a waiver allowing it to offer a radio that works across citizens broadband radio service and C-band spectrum. Comments are due March 27, replies April 4, in docket 23-93. “At the time the C-Band Order was adopted, the CBRS auction had not even commenced,” Samsung said in a petition seeking the waiver: “No one knew who would win licenses in CBRS, let alone in the 3.7 GHz auction which would not end for another year. Carriers were still determining what their mid-band strategies would be and how they could use one or both bands. The world has evolved significantly since then. Grant of Samsung’s waiver request is appropriate now to ensure that carriers have the equipment they need to rapidly deliver on the promise of their 5G networks.” The FCC recently approved a similar waiver for a multiband waiver for Ericsson, which had broad support (see 2208240045).

Federated Wireless representatives spoke with staff from the FCC Public Safety Bureau on “the successes” of the citizens broadband radio service band’s spectrum sharing model and the implications for 4.9 GHz, the topic of a recent order and Further NPRM (see 2301180062). Federated discussed “the similarities between the proposed 4.9 GHz Band Manager responsibilities and the activities Federated Wireless performs in our role as a CBRS Spectrum Access System administrator,” said a Wednesday filing in docket 07-100. Similarities include “frequency coordination and protection of incumbent operations; design and implementation of private 5G wireless networks for diverse commercial and public sector use cases; and management of a streamlined secondary market for CBRS Priority Access License leases,” Federated said. The CBRS band has “strong momentum” with more than 312,000 base stations deployed nationwide “in only 3 years,” the company said.

While the lineup of cable operators providing mobile service grows, with others likely to follow, most will rely on mobile virtual network operators and their own Wi-Fi networks to provide the service rather than become more active in acquiring spectrum for their own wireless networks, wireless and cable experts tell us.

Federated Wireless said Tuesday it’s working with low-cost carrier Mobi to provide spectrum access system and environmental sensing capability services so the carrier can “bring its Citizens Broadband Radio Service network online throughout the Hawaiian Islands.” Through the use of CBRS, “high-speed broadband services will be available in hard-to-reach regions of the islands and will enable Mobi to triple channel utilization and enhance network performance,” Federated said. Mobi “will be able to leverage their [priority access] licenses and the lower 100 MHz of the CBRS band to bring reliable, high-speed broadband services throughout the Hawaiian Islands,” said Chris Swan, Federated chief commercial officer: “The extension of our ESC network into Hawaii rounds out the expansion of our CBRS operations across the United States.”

The FCC gave preliminary approval to RED Technologies as a spectrum access system operator in the citizens broadband radio service band. The company “satisfied the Commission’s SAS laboratory testing requirements and is approved to begin its initial commercial deployment,” said a Thursday notice by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology: The FCC “in coordination with NTIA and the DoD, will review RED’s ICD Report and will publicly announce if RED successfully completes ICD and receives final certification to operate a SAS.”

Representatives of Federated Wireless and Charter Communications met with an aide to FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks to discuss “the benefits of spectrum sharing,” said a filing posted Wednesday in docket 17-258. The citizens broadband radio service spectrum sharing model “facilitates the growth of mobile competition and has enabled new entrants into the market, many of whom are using the band to develop their own private networks for uses such as industrial automation, artificial intelligence, and predictive maintenance, in environments ranging from warehouses, ports, factories, airports, and office buildings, in rural as well as densely populated areas, supporting supply chain efficiency,” the companies said. CTIA raised questions whether the CBRS sharing model is a viable alternative to exclusive-use licensed spectrum (see 2212120050).

The FCC approved new environmental sensing capability sensor deployment and coverage plans in the citizens broadband radio service band for Federated Wireless, in parts of Alaska. The order, by the Wireless Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology, was posted Tuesday in docket 15-319.

Federated Wireless defended advanced sharing technologies in a meeting with FCC International Bureau staff. Federated offered “an overview of the successes of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum sharing model, including its effective protection of different types of incumbent systems as well as the innovation and competition it has stimulated and the new entrants it has brought to the market,” said a filing Thursday in docket 19-348. New entrants “are using the band to develop their own private networks for uses such as industrial automation, smart inventory management, and predictive maintenance, in environments ranging from warehouses, factories, farms, school campuses, and office buildings, in rural as well as densely populated areas,” Federated said. CTIA raised questions about CBRS as the optimal model for spectrum allocation, saying it’s inferior to exclusive use licensing and questioning how successful the CBRS experiment has been (see 2212120050). In less than three years, “nearly 300,000 CBRS devices have been deployed nationwide, a record number of users have adopted CBRS spectrum (228 Priority Access Licensees and 900 General Authorized Access users), and a large ecosystem of U.S. equipment suppliers and vendors has emerged,” Federated said.