Seventeen companies and associations urged the FCC to act to open the 3.5 GHz band and said it would slow deployment if it made major rule changes. Commissioner Mike O’Rielly is working on revisions (see 1704190056). The Thursday letter says small changes aren't a problem.
CBRS
The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is designated unlicensed spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band created by the FCC as part of an effort to allow for shared federal and non-federal use of the band.
The Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) urged the FCC to move forward on key parts of its remaining work on the 3.5 GHz shared band, in a letter posted in docket 12-354. A year ago, the FCC approved final rules establishing a three-tiered access and sharing model between federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licensees (PALs) in the 3550-3650 GHz part of the band and general authorized access users (see 1504170055) in the band. Industry has demonstrated interest in the citizens band radio service spectrum (CBRS) in a number of developments since, DSA said. “These include a recent successful test deployment of a private LTE network, a rural broadband project that demonstrates the types of investments and innovation that private enterprise has made since the adoption of the rules, and technological advancements for improving the indoor cellular experience," DSA said. “These and other developments have been made primarily by the 42 companies participating in the CBRS Alliance.” Now the FCC needs to move, the letter said. DSA urged the FCC to develop rules for a PAL auction and certify the spectrum access systems and environmental sensing capability of operators who will help manage sharing “as soon as possible in order to open the 3.5 GHz band for companies poised to deploy their networks.” DSA also reacted to reports the FCC will revise rules for the band (see 1703160029). “Finally, in light of the recent news that there may be interest at the Commission in considering changes to the Part 96 framework, we also caution that injecting regulatory uncertainty at this late stage will have the effect of reducing or stranding current investment, deterring future investment, and ultimately setting back active use of the 3.5 GHz band to square one,” DSA said.
Changes to rules for the 3.5 GHz shared band appear to be on a fast track at the FCC, with Commissioner Mike O’Rielly driving the process, industry and agency officials said. O’Rielly asked the industry about potential changes to the rules, the officials said. But he's expected to push only limited changes. Wi-Fi advocates warn that more sweeping changes could mean a slowdown in the launch of the band, a multiple-year focus for the FCC.
Comcast and Charter Communications joining the CBRS Alliance will help create interest among major handset vendors for supporting the 3.5 GHz band, with end-user device availability being one of the issues that will dictate when the band is used commercially for mobile, said CableLabs Vice President-Core Innovations Pete Smyth in a blog post Thursday. He said commercial rollout also will be dictated by the availability of spectrum access systems (SAS), environmental sensing capacity (ESC) and commercial grade network equipment. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile are looking at LTE deployment in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, he said. With Samsung's upcoming Galaxy 8 supposedly supporting band 42 and Sony announcing support of band 42 in an upcoming handset, "all of this bodes well for 2018," CableLabs said. It said SASs and ESCs are expected to be operational by year's end, which points to full spectrum availability next year.
CBRS Alliance founding members Nokia and Federated Wireless said they’re working together on an LTE technology for the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band. Nokia will provide indoor and outdoor CBRS small cells through its Flexi Zone solution, and shared-spectrum company Federated is offering a cloud-based spectrum controller giving operators a “cost-effective and dynamic option for accessing this new spectrum,” the companies said in a Friday news release. “The CBRS 3.5 GHz band provides much needed spectrum to meet the rapidly growing demand for wireless network capacity, while addressing potential interference and coordination issues with new spectrum sharing and management techniques. Operators have taken notice, and several US operators have escalated their plans to trial the new technology as they continue to densify their mobile networks and prepare for 5G.”
The Wireless Innovation Forum said its members approved its Spectrum Sharing Committee’s signaling protocols and procedures to be used in the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band for spectrum access systems -- and spectrum access system (SAS) interfaces. “These standards are the first of their kind addressing the new FCC Part 96 rules for CBRS. Publication of these standards represents a major milestone for enabling U.S. commercialization of the band,” the Winn Forum said in a Tuesday news release. Elements include SAS-SAS prerequisites, SAS-SAS procedures, SAS-SAS synchronization, message encoding and transport and parameters of SAS-SAS messages, the forum said. The new administration is expected by some to make changes to the rules for the 3.5 GHz band (see 1611180037).
Twelve companies, including AT&T and Ericsson, joined the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Alliance, it said Thursday in a news release. Other new members are Accelleran, Airspan Networks, American Tower, Baicells, CableLabs, ExteNet Systems, Nsight, Ranzure Networks, Rise Broadband and ZTE. The CBRS Alliance was launched in August as the FCC moves closer to opening the 3.5 GHz shared band. “For LTE-based solutions in the shared CBRS band to be successful, we need a wide range of ecosystem partners, infrastructure, equipment and network providers, to work together closely,” said Michael Peeters of Nokia, president of the alliance. “CBRS enables new kinds of deployments and business models, from LTE-based neutral hosts that can serve multiple service providers, to dedicated networks serving various entities such as enterprises or IoT verticals,” said Neville Meijers of Qualcomm Technologies, alliance chairman.
CableLabs joined the CBRS Alliance and its effort to "evangelize LTE-based citizens [broadband radio service] technology, use cases and business opportunities," the organization said in a blog post Monday. CableLabs said the alliance also is working on a product certification program for LTE equipment in the 3.5 GHz band. It said its Kyrio subsidiary will look at expanding its testing services to support CBRS. According to the alliance website, other members include Alphabet, Intel, Nokia and Qualcomm. CableLabs earlier this month joined the MulteFire Alliance consortium, which is focused on LTE mobile standards (see 1609210009).
Six wireless technology companies launched the CBRS Alliance to “develop, market and promote LTE-based solutions” in the new 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service band, they said Tuesday. The six companies are Access Technologies, Federated Wireless, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Ruckus Wireless. “In February, the companies announced their commitment to build an ecosystem of industry participants and make LTE-based solutions in the CBRS band widely available,” said an alliance news release. “The Alliance will work towards LTE CBRS field trials in the second half of this year and is developing an official certification process towards successful deployments of CBRS infrastructure.” The FCC approved an experimental three-tiered access and sharing model made up of federal and nonfederal incumbents, priority access licenses and general authorized access users for the shared band (see 1608120057). The FCC still must approve the first spectrum access system administrators and environmental sensing capability operators that will make the complex sharing arrangement work.
The outlook for the 3.5 GHz band, and whether it will attract carrier interest, remain unclear more than three years after the FCC approved the initial rulemaking notice in December 2012 (see 1604280062). Some industry lawyers say carriers are unlikely to play an active role in the band mainly because of the limits placed on the priority access licenses (PALs) to be sold by the FCC as one part of the experiment in sharing. But other observers predict a more positive outcome given the number of carriers that have taken part in the Wireless Innovation Forum’s work on the band.