Citizens Broadband Radio Interest Growing Amid Pandemic, Speakers Say

There's growing interest in the citizens broadband radio service band, a FierceWireless webinar was told. Speakers from three of the five FCC-authorized spectrum access system administrators, CommScope, Federated Wireless and Google, said they're demonstrating CBRS will live up to the hype. It's “surprisingly successful, particularly considering the restraints of COVID,” said Preston Marshall, Google engineering director. “We’re doubling deployments … about every month,” he said: The “ecosystem” is growing. In three months, “we’ve completely moved past the question of does it work,” he said. “Spectrum underlying Wi-Fi isn’t the quality of spectrum underlying CBRS, and with that you can get predictability, high bandwidth, mobility, low latency, good outdoor coverage,” said Dustin LaMascus, Nokia head-business development, private wireless. One use is Nokia's solution for companies to take employee temperatures. Federated has more than 15,000 devices attached to its system, said Chief Technology Officer Kurt Schaubach. It's working with companies applying for licenses in the PALs auction. “We need to see more device penetration,” he said. Wi-Fi “keeps getting asked to do things … it really wasn’t designed to do,” said Steve Wimsatt, CommScope senior director-business development and alliances. “Wi-Fi is going to keep getting better, 5G is coming,” he said: “CBRS offers a unique solution” that “provides the reliability, the predictability of LTE.” The pandemic is accelerating the move to digital and automation, Schaubach said. “Our business certainly hasn’t slowed.” Future uses include all the things “coming with 5G,” like artificial intelligence and augmented and virtual reality, he said. He predicted strong interest in the PALs, including by service providers buying the licenses and offering managed networks for businesses.