CBRS looks to bring competition to the US ISP market
During the Mobile World Congress Americas of last year, many players in the industry might have questioned if the highly publicized 3.5 GHz CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Services) band and all that it guaranteed would actually come to fulfillment. In any case, the product is a totally novel spectrum sharing model that is designed to guard incumbents as it frees up valuable spectrum for competition in markets that is desperately needed.
Things seem to be looking quite different this year. The Citizen Broadband Radio Services Alliance recently commemorated the outcome of its latest inter-operability event in Colorado, at Cable-Labs in Louisville.
Horizon Communications is watching the CBRS space with a keen eye, as the technology being developed for CBRS spectrum is likely going to advance the wireless industry quite a bit. Horizon is already planning to deploy LTE equipment in spectrum similar to CBRS spectrum for fixed and mobile wireless access.
At this event, they had fifty five diverse CBRS combinations. These combinations were run through various test scenarios achieving about 98% rate of completion with no failures. According to Dave Wright, the president of CBRS Alliance, CBRS is confirming that the ecosystem is fully ready.
Wright shared an experience of one Citizen Band Service Device vendor at the event who had never had an interaction with a Spectrum Access System administrator before the event. The vendor with their radio equipment and introduced it to the Spectrum Access System, spending just 30 minutes to get connectivity.
While speaking, he mentioned that organizations planning to get registered and certified as SAS managers have presented details to the FCC about the quantity of sites they want to turn on and additional information about their mode of operations. According to the Federated Wireless, there is backlog of demand for CBRS spectrum to partner with about fifteen companies including cable service providers, wireless carriers, a managed service provider, and a major tower company to implement CBRS solutions at about 15,733 sites in forty seven states and District of Columbia.
During the MWCA, Joe Madden, the principal analyst of Mobile Experts mentioned that roughly 16,000 small cells are waiting to go live on the day the switch becomes turned over. This is a huge amount of small cells for a field that is waiting for what appears to be taking forever to takeoff. Interestingly, this is just one among the various projected SAS administrators.
Companies such as Ruckus Network, a Wi-Fi access point provider, is currently looking for more things that the CBRS can accomplish over and beyond what it can presently achieve. Verizon already mentioned that it anticipates devices that are supporting CBRS will be available before the year ends. Interestingly, it looks like a relationship between Smartphones and CBRS is about to happen.
According to the Vice President of Ruckus, Joel Lindholm, it is certain that the first set of devices will be launched soon. The vice president of Converged Access and Device Technology (AT&T), Gordon Mansfield, also added that one of the major issues about the CBRS is making it generally available in Smartphones. He said this at his presentation during the CBRS event. He went further to assure the audience that it will definitely happen but it might take some time.
Gilbert A Darrell is the Founder of Horizon. He has 18 years experience in information technology and telecom solutions, a veteran in Fire and EMS Services, a crypto enthusiast and a member of the Bermuda Government’s Cryptocurrency Task Force.
Horizon Communications is an upcoming fixed wireless internet and cellular service provider looking to provide services in Bermuda, the Caribbean, and Central America before expanding internationally. While utilizing 4th generation and soon 5th generation wireless technology,it will also heavily incorporate blockchain and cryptocurrency technology.
More information can be found on their website — www.HorizonComm.co
