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Is CBRS living up to expectations?

May 31. 2021

Praseeth Sreedharan

Senior Director of Virtualization and Management Solutions, Networks Business, Samsung Electronics America

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) has been in discussion and planning for the past several years. Has CBRS delivered on its promises or is it lagging expectations?

History of CBRS

First, a quick recap on CBRS. In 2012 the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology presented a report¹in which ‘spectrum sharing’ was discussed. Spectrum sharing means that no single entity would own the rights to the band in any market. Instead, the frequency band would be shared. Globally, this was the first time a shared spectrum concept had been presented, and would lead the way for other countries that would observe the viability of the program working.

In 2015, the FCC designated 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz (3.55 – 3.7 GHz) band for use by three tiers of users: 1) incumbents, such as the U.S. Navy; 2) purchasers of a Priority Access License (PAL) from the FCC auction; and 3) General Authorized Access (GAA), which is open to anyone. GAA users can use the spectrum except when in use by an incumbent or PAL holder. In 2016, the CBRS Alliance (now renamed as OnGo Alliance) was formed when five companies² joined to promote the use of LTE technology in CBRS spectrum. Samsung is a member of the OnGo Alliance, which now has grown to more than 190 members³. Initial Commercial Deployment was announced in September 2019 and the FCC auction for the PALs was completed in August 2020, raising a total of $4.6 billion.⁴

Early expectations

Early use cases for CBRS were thought to focus on private networks, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), network capacity expansion by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and Neutral Hosts providing coverage to venues or buildings using LTE.

What successes have we seen?

The PAL auction was a major success. It showcased that the 3.5 GHz band was in great demand due to its ability to carry higher capacity than low-bands and to travel further than high-bands. More organizations (228⁵) won licenses than in any other FCC auction, including Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), cable companies, Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), and non-traditional entrants like utilities, educational facilities, and numerous private companies⁶. The CBRS band will likely be a backbone for various use cases, including capacity expansion for existing network operators, expanded service offerings for businesses such as cable companies and WISPs, and private networks, both 4G and 5G.

Another success for CBRS is that so far the shared spectrum method seems to be working. Entire networks of hardware sensors, called Environmental Sensing Capabilities (ESC) have been deployed around the country. The software side of the network, called the Spectrum Access System (SAS), has been developed, with each operated by different companies. The SAS dynamically coordinates and manages spectrum sharing across all three tiers (incumbents, PAL, GAA) to prevent interference to higher priority users.

There has been successful use cases in areas that were not initially thought to be early adopters. With the COVID-19 pandemic, some schools equipped their buses with Wi-Fi to allow the students to gain internet connectivity using CBRS as backhaul⁷. Additionally, one company has deployed almost 100 CBRS private LTE networks in national parks⁸ and private RV parks throughout the country.

According to the OnGo Alliance, the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs) market has 221 CBRS-capable end user devices⁹ completed with CC authorizations, and 83 of them are mobile phones and it is growing.

The Future of CBRS

Overall, CBRS has developed at a much faster pace than other wireless technologies. It has opened doors for many regional service providers and enterprises to explore new options to achieve their wireless connectivity goals. The Wireless Telecommunications Bureau continues to approve and grant CBRS licenses every month, with the latest list¹⁰ published on April 30^th, 2021. CBRS will continue its upward usage trajectory and Samsung will continue to lead the way with OnGo certified CBRS outdoor small cell, 4T4R Radio, and 64T64R Massive MIMO Radio¹¹. In addition to these, Samsung provides end-to-end 5G solutions, from infrastructure to devices along with network deployment and management services with TeleWorld Solutions, a subsidiary of Samsung Networks.