CBRS Sharing Model Seen Needing Bigger International Push
The citizens broadband radio service spectrum-sharing model is easily adoptable by other nations, but there needs to be more work proselytizing about it internationally, spectrum experts said Tuesday at a CBRS seminar by New America's Open Technology Institute about spectrum sharing in private wireless networks. CBRS is a route for regulators and agencies like NTIA to work with overseas counterparts on pushing sharing models, said Scott Harris, NTIA senior spectrum adviser. He said the U.S. needs to boost such international engagement and the private sector needs to encourage regulators overseas to have those conversations.
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The event also saw criticisms of CTIA claims about few CBRS access points being in use nationwide and the band having limited demand (see 2211140062). Use of drive tests to determine wide-area geographic coverage by high-power cellular deployments isn't a fair way to measure CBRS use, said NCTA Vice President Becky Tangren, adding it's "a temporal band" that's on and off, so a drive-by could easily miss its use. CBRS is frequently used indoors in shielded environments, also making drive tests a poor guide, she said.
While the FCC has put considerable effort into the 3.5 GHz band CBRS sharing framework, it's looking at other ways of bolstering private wireless networks, such as via nonexclusive access to the 42 GHz band, said Jonathan Campbell, wireless aide to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. Pointing to the fixed satellite services, carrier networks, cable companies, industrial users and others operating in the band alongside DOD, former Wireless Bureau Deputy Chief John Leibovitz said expanding that kind of band sharing should be a policy goal. He said other nations are starting to dedicate bands for local area private cellular networks, but a drawback to that approach means less spectrum available for other uses.
Nations interested in commercial access for private wireless networks have expressed interest in the automated access system portion of the CBRS sharing framework, and that is adaptable internationally, said Jennifer McCarthy, Federated Wireless vice president-legal advocacy. Expanding a spectrum-sharing framework to the 3.1-3.45 band could be more challenging because airborne military radar uses that spectrum more heavily than CBRS, she said.
"Spectrum sharing" in NTIA's eyes can mean a variety of options, including use of repacking or geographical separation, and it doesn't necessarily exclude licensing models, said NTIA's Harris. He said the CBRS sharing model is being continually evaluated, but "so far we believe the experiment is a success." He said while what NTIA's forthcoming national spectrum strategy says about particular bands will get a lot of focus, what it says about dynamic spectrum sharing also should get attention.