Comcast said it has teamed up with Samsung Electronics to deliver 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) Solutions for its Xfinity Mobile and Comcast Business Mobile customers.

Comcast said the Samsung equipment will be used to enhance 5G connectivity for mobile customers in its service territory using CBRS and 600 MHz spectrum.

Samsung will provide 5G RAN products such as radios for CBRS and 600MHz, baseband units, and a newly developed 5G CBRS Strand Small Cell that can be deployed on Comcast’s aerial cable lines. Using the small cell product will enable cable operators to more easily and cost-effectively provide 5G cellular connectivity by leveraging their existing DOCSIS infrastructure without having to build or acquire additional cell sites, Comcast said.

“Our capital-light approach to providing enhanced 5G connectivity in service areas where we have a high concentration of traffic and cable infrastructure is smart for our business and even better for customers who will benefit from broader coverage and industry-leading speeds and prices,” Comcast senior VP of wireless strategy Tom Nagel said in a press release. “Partnering with Samsung and leveraging their leadership in 5G network innovation will help us seamlessly deliver more next-generation applications and services to our consumer and business mobile customers.”

Comcast and Samsung are conducting field trials of the new 5G network solution and are currently expanding these trials to include Comcast employee testing

“We are excited to collaborate with Comcast on their journey to deliver the most enhanced 5G experiences available to their customers,” Samsung Electronics America executive VP and head of networks business Mark Louison said in a press release. “With this partnership, Samsung continues to build on its wireless technology leadership in commercial 5G rollouts. We look forward to helping Comcast advance its goals in delivering best-in-class 5G mobile services for their Xfinity Mobile and Comcast Business customers.” ▪️

Cable operators may not be an imminent threat to the Big Three wireless carriers, Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. After four years of tapping on the front door, though, they may be closer than ever to knocking it down, with help from Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) and 5G mobile spectrum.    

Since Comcast launched its Xfinity Mobile service in 2017, via a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with Verizon Communications, cable wireless amassed nearly 6 million subscribers, making it the industry’s fastest growth product in terms of percentages. Cable’s biggest wireless rise was in 2020, when top cable operators Comcast, Charter and Altice USA, fueled in part by pandemic-
driven increases in broadband, grew their wireless customers at a 68% clip. That momentum continued into Q1 2021, with those three operators growing their total wireless lines to 5.9 million, a 9% increase. 

Comcast broke records in the wireless business in Q1, adding 278,000 lines — its most ever in a quarter — while the Xfinity Mobile unit reached cash flow breakeven (it didn’t lose money) for the first time since its launch. Wireless revenue rose nearly 50% in the quarter to $513 million, further solidifying the company’s wireless commitment.  

The news was just as good for Charter, which added 300,000 wireless customers in Q1. Altice USA added about 5,000 wireless customers in Q1.

Comcast still leads the pack with 3.1 million mobile subscribers, followed by Charter — which also has a MVNO agreement with Verizon — with 2.6 million and Altice USA with 174,000. Altice USA was the last to launch a mobile service (Altice Mobile) through an MVNO pact with T-Mobile, in September 2019. 

Those cable companies are still a long way from being an immediate threat to wireless’ Big Three: AT&T leads with 164 million postpaid wireless customers, followed by Verizon with 117 million and T-Mobile, which completed its $26 billion purchase of Sprint in 2019, has 67 million. But as pricing continues to be one of the biggest deciding factors in selecting a mobile service, and many cable wireless customers are also hardwire broadband subscribers, the gap is poised to close rapidly. Add in the potential of 5G mobile service — which depends greatly on fiber interconnections between towers, a cable strong suit — and the notion that cable wireless could become a major player isn’t that much of a stretch. 

Skeptics need look no further than the dominant position cable has carved out in broadband service. In the beginning, telcos ruled the day with copper wire digital subscriber line service, offering 1.5 Mbps speeds that in the 1990s were a major upgrade from dial-up. But as cable continued to deploy fiber deep into its network, and speed requirements vaulted into the hundreds of megabits per second, cable broadband quickly overtook its DSL competition. Today, cable accounts for about 70% of the U.S. broadband market, a number expected to grow as operators push fiber out to the edges of their footprints. 

Broadband Sets Precedent 

Cable operators have been edging out their footprints at an accelerated pace over the past few years. In 2020, Comcast added about 1 million homes passed to its footprint, with Charter adding about 1.1 million homes. Even at 30% penetration rates, that could translate into about 300,000 more broadband customers. And increasingly, cable operators seem anxious to add wireless to that bundle, which could drive those numbers as well.  

As many as 90% of cable wireless customers are also cable broadband customers, said Evercore ISI media analyst Vijay Jayant. Extending that broadband reach can only help the cause for wireless.

In its Q4 conference call with analysts, Comcast chief financial officer Mike Cavanagh said mobile is a “strategic priority” for the company and has been “fully integrated” into the core business. Xfinity Mobile added 774,000 wireless customers in 2020, slightly behind the 816,000 added in 2019, all during a period where most of its retail stores were closed because of the pandemic. Those outlets were fully open this year and as a result expected to have a positive impact on sales.  

Did they ever. Xfinity Mobile reported its best quarterly subscriber additions yet in Q1: 278,000 versus 216,000 adds in Q1 2020.

Many analysts are beginning to see wireless as a replacement for video in the overall cable bundle. As video subscribers continue to cut the cord for streaming services but keep their cable broadband connection, adding wireless service could keep the price of broadband more manageable. According to Bernstein, penetration for the video/broadband double-play has fallen from about 63% in 2018 to 51% in 2020.  

On its Q1 earnings conference call April 28, Comcast Cable president and CEO Dave Watson said that bundling broadband and wireless is something the company has done in the past and will continue to do. 

 “We think it’s good for broadband, it’s helping broadband, we’ve seen the results in terms of churn, and it’s just a growth engine for us, period,” Watson said of the wireless product. “We’re focusing on every sales channel. We’re going to be consistent with our approach.  You’ll probably see a bit more packaging with broadband and mobile, but that’s not really different than anything that we’ve been doing.”

Lose Some, Win More

In a research note, Bernstein media analyst Peter Supino called the practice of shedding low-margin video service for higher-margin broadband the industry’s “losing to win” strategy.

“The downside is the potential loss of ‘stickiness’ as a result of moving to a single offering,” he wrote. “Mobile is the potential cure.”  

Supino added in other client notes that wireless is “far stickier” than video because the decision to switch internet/video providers is about a single item. It’s much harder to try to persuade every household member to change cellphone providers at the same time. 

Wells Fargo Securities media analyst Steven Cahall estimated Comcast would add about 225,000 wireless customers in Q1 and 935,000 for the full year. That compares to his estimates of an increase of about 400,000 broadband subscribers in Q1 and 1.3 million for the full year.  

Earlier this year, Comcast revised its Verizon MVNO agreement. It said in April it would drastically reduce pricing for its Xfinity Mobile service, offering four lines with unlimited data for $120 per month. That price lines up with T-Mobile’s flagship Magenta service ($140 per month with Netflix and taxes included) and severely undercuts comparable offerings from Verizon and AT&T that are priced above $160 per month. Charter, which has an identical MVNO arrangement with Verizon, is expected to follow suit.

While the price reductions are likely to attract some additional customer interest, Bernstein’s Supino wrote, they don’t include phone discounts so they’re unlikely to have a huge impact on subscribers. But once Comcast achieves scale in phone equipment — which Supino predicted will occur in 2023 — and achieves even greater economies by shifting the bulk of traffic onto its CBRS spectrum, all bets are off. 

“We expect Comcast (and Charter) to continue to reinvest wireless economies of scale in subscribers in order to drive total cable customer lifetime value,” Supino wrote. “By 2023, when we forecast that Comcast and Charter will have deployed enough phones and small cells to make use of their recently acquired CBRS spectrum, we expect operating cost savings to fund more competitive phone promotions. ”

Betting on CBRS

The cable companies have invested heavily in CBRS spectrum: Charter spent about $465 million for 210 CBRS priority access licenses in the recent federal auction, while Comcast spent about $459 million for 830 licenses, Supino said. 

“CBRS spectrum and low-cost, strand-mounted small cells allow cable operators to build out their own facilities in dense areas,” Moffett wrote. “As much as 70% of all wireless traffic is handled by just 10% of cell sites. Cable will attempt to build out these dense areas (high ROI) with CBRS, leaving the less dense areas to the Verizon MVNO agreement, effectively arbitraging the wireless industry.

“Everything hinges on how much traffic can be offloaded onto CBRS,” Moffett said.

During the Q1 conference call, Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts acknowledged the spectrum will be used to offload some traffic from the MVNO, adding that the ability to do so requires a strong wireless partner.

“Yes, we bought some spectrum and we’ll be doing some trials to see how we can offload, and that really will prove to be a cost savings if we get it right in dense areas,” Roberts said on the call. “That whole relationship requires a healthy partnership with a wireless [mobile network operator]. And in the case of Verizon, we were really pleased with the partnership.” 

For 5G, Moffett wrote as networks get more dense, key to their success will be the fiber connections between towers, which are spaced much closer together in 5G architectures. 

“As wireless networks densify, underlying wires will become the single most important part of the cost structure,” Moffett added. “As wires begin to dominate the cost structure, he who has the densest wired network will win. Cable has the densest network. Therefore, cable infrastructure will ultimately win in wireless. Just as it has already won in broadband.” 

The state of South Carolina has teamed up with educational broadcasters, 5G tech suppliers, and others to launch a residential wireless broadband pilot project using COVID-19 aid funding.

The completed project, which was announced Friday, uses $393,104 in CARES Act appropriations to create the Allendale Broadband Pilot Program, which provides broadband to families with school-age children—employing a private LTE fixed wireless network using citizens broadband radio service (CBRS) spectrum—as well as via multiple public Wi-Fi hubs.

The FCC made CBRS spectrum available for such purposes in January 2020.

The residential network provides internet access to approximately 1,000 homes in the Allendale area with wireless speeds of up to 78 Mbps downstream/6 Mbps upstream, according to the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS), South Carolina's non adjudicator utility regulator.

Also Read: FCC Votes to Make CBRS Band More 5G Friendly

Among the backers of the project are Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), House majority whip, whose daughter, former FCC acting chair Mignon Clyburn, was once a member of South Carolina's utility regulatory commission.

At a press conference launching the project, Clyburn said it would be great to have fiber everywhere (cable ops argue a hybrid fiber/coax approach is nothing to sneeze at, either), but that in the interim: "What we need to do is get what we can get done now. And when people tell me we gotta wait on 5G and we have no G, I don't want to talk to them."

The goal of the Allendale project was to see how fast wireless infrastructure could be deployed—ORS says it took only 61 days—using existing assets, to a community without internet access, in this case rural Allendale County. "If you can do it in rural Allendale County, you can do it anywhere," said Jim Stritzinger of ORS.

Among the existing assets were South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV) broadcast towers. The pilot project represents "a scalable model that communities around South Carolina and the nation could follow to bridge the enormous digital divide that so many rural communities face," SCETV said. SCETV President Anthony Padgett said SCETV had a unique set of resources that could be employed in that pursuit.

The South Carolina General Assembly authorized ORS to expend up to $50 million of CARES Act funding for broadband initiatives like the pilot project.

The project's partners, in alphabetical order, were: Allendale County School District, Allendale Hampton Jasper Regional Library, Dominion Energy South Carolina, Linksys, Ookla, Palmetto Rural Telephone Cooperative, Revolution D, Inc., Siklu, SC Department of Aging,  South Carolina Department of Education, South Carolina Educational Television (SCETV), South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS), SouthernCarolina Alliance, Town of Allendale, University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie, and Valet Technologies.

Charter Communications hopes that Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) can soon divert a big chunk of its mobile data traffic off Verizon’s network, which it uses under a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement. 

“I think over the long haul — meaning four, five years — [CBRS] could be up to a third of our traffic that’s ... currently [used] on an MVNO kind of basis,” Charter chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge told investment analysts Jan. 29 during the cable operator’s fourth-quarter and full-year earnings call.

ALSO READ: Charter, Comcast Set New Growth Paths After 2020 

Charter recently spent $465 million to purchase 21 CBRS priority access licenses. Rutledge said that 80% of Charter’s current mobile traffic is delivered over WiFi. It aims to soon have even more data usage defrayed from more expensive wholesale usage of Verizon’s network. 

“We intend to use those licenses, along with significant unlicensed CBRS spectrum on a targeted 5G small cell site strategy, with our [hybrid fiber-coaxial] network providing power and backhaul,” Rutledge said. “Those small cells, combined with improving WiFi capabilities, enable better throughput while driving significantly better economics for Charter. This year, we'll focus on scaling our systems to actively manage traffic on handsets using our MVNO, WiFi and CBRS spectrum. We will also build some targeted 5G small cell sites, which will help us learn how to pace our purely return-on-investment based CBRS deployment.”

Charter added 300,000 mobile lines in the fourth quarter and now controls 2.32 million total lines. Mobile revenue in the fourth quarter reached $428 million, versus $236 million in Q4 2019. 

The cable company is spending more on its mobile business these days: the wireless unit’s costs were up 40.5% year over year to $522 million. But Charter insisted that costs — and subscriber lines — aren’t rising due to device subsidy promotions. 

“We’re not giving away free phones to kick up wireless net adds,” Charter chief financial officer Chris Winfrey said, speaking alongside Rutledge.

ALSO READ: Charter Launches $5 Billion, Multi-Year Plan to Expand Broadband to 1 Million New Homes

As for CBRS, Rutledge said it will have an “opportunistic” role in Charter’s technology portfolio. “It depends on traffic flows, it depends on the quantity of flows and where they are and whether it pays for us to put out the capital to reduce those costs, but it is necessary. And if you think through our WiFi deployment as well, there is a mixture between WiFi and CBRS in terms of offload and how that works.”

Beyond pure economics, Rutledge said CBRS could improve overall user experience. “We’ve looked at CBRS strictly as a incremental opportunity from a return-on-investment point of view to move traffic onto our network, but it also does have the potential of increasing the consumers’ experience in terms of their satisfaction because of the quality of that connection,” he said. “And so that’s sort of an unstated opportunity going forward. Hard to quantify, but part of our strategy.” 

Charter Communications hopes that Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) can soon divert a big chunk of its mobile data traffic off Verizon’s network, for which it has an MVNO agreement to use. 

“I think over the long haul, meaning four, five years, [CBRS] could be up to a third of our traffic that's ... currently [used] on an MVNO kind of basis,” Charter Chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge told investment analysts during the cable operator’s fourth-quarter/full-2020 earnings call Friday.

Charter recently spent $465 million to purchase 21 CBRS priority access licenses. Rutledge said that 80% of Charter’s current mobile traffic is delivered over WiFi. And it aims to soon have even more data usage defrayed from more expensive wholesale usage of Verizon’s network. 

“We intend to use those licenses, along with significant unlicensed CBRS spectrum on a targeted 5G small cell site strategy, with our [hybrid fiber-coaxial] network providing power and backhaul,” Rutledge said. “Those small cells, combined with improving WiFi capabilities enable better throughput while driving significantly better economics for Charter. This year, we'll focus on scaling our systems to actively manage traffic on handsets using our MVNO, WiFi and CBRS spectrum. We will also build some targeted 5G small cell sites, which will help us learn how to pace our purely return on investment based CBRS deployment.”

Charter added 300,000 mobile lines in the fourth quarter and now controls 2.32 million total lines. Mobile revenue in the fourth quarter reached $428 million, versus $236 million in Q4 2019. 

The cable company is spending more on its mobile business days—the wireless unit’s costs were up 40.5% year over year to $522 million. But Charter insisted that costs—and subscriber lines—aren’t rising due to device subsidy promotions. 

“We’re not giving away free phones to get a kick up the wireless net adds,” said CFO Chris Winfrey, speaking alongside Rutledge.

As for CBRS, Rutledge said it will have an “opportunistic” role in Charter’s technology portfolio. “It depends on traffic flows, it depends on the quantity of flows and where they are and whether it pays for us to put out the capital to reduce those costs, but it is necessary. And if you think through our WiFi deployment as well, there is a mixture between WiFi and CBRS in terms of offload and how that works.”

Beyond pure economics, Rutledge said CBRS could improve overall user experience.

“We've looked at CBRS strictly as a incremental opportunity from a return-on-investment point of view to move traffic onto our network, but it also does have the potential of increasing the consumers' experience in terms of their satisfaction because of the quality of that connection,” he said. “And so that's sort of an unstated opportunity going forward, hard to quantify, but part of our strategy.”

While Charter Communications continues to aggressively move to accumulate wireless spectrum, chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said ultimately its mobile motivations are tied to supporting the overall business. 

Charter has been keen on building up its spectrum holdings -- the Federal Communications Commission said Monday the cable operator wins the most locations in its Rural Digital Opportunities Fund (RDOF) auctions.  At the UBS Virtual TMT conference Monday, Rutledge said that the company’s wireless spectrum plays -- including participating in the CBRS auctions and “edging out” its existing footprint -- are parts of the overall strategy to reach as many customers as possible. 

Rutledge said he couldn’t speak directly about the RDOF auction -- he is still in a quiet period -- but said in general, its edge-out program, its wireless network and working with local, state and federal governments for rights of way are all moves to increase the size of its customer base as well as the communities it serves. 

“We think it’s smart to do that, and if it can be done in an economically efficient way, we’ve embraced that,” Rutledge said. “If we do that, we end up with more customers and a happier customer.”

Rutledge added that wireless doesn’t only mean mobile phone service -- Charter customers have connected about 400 million wireless devices to its network. And the wireless product has had a tangible effect on how Charter sells its flagship product, broadband.

Charter added about 363,000 wireless lines in Q3, bringing its total Spectrum Mobile customers to about 2.1 million. 

“The overall value of the relationship is improved by wireless,” Rutledge said. “As a standalone business it’s still a good business. We’ve actually crossed the threshold where every incremental customer becomes profitable in mobile. We’ve covered our fixed costs, with the customer base we’ve already creed, so incrementally the wind is at our back financially. But it’s also a positive driver of our overall ability to have a good relationship with customers that improves the whole value proposition of a customer’s telecom bill.”

Charter made headlines with its positive video customer growth over the past two quarters -- 102,000 additions in Q2 and 67,000 in Q3 -- and Rutledge said some of those increases were due to satellite TV customers that dropped that service after buying broadband from Charter. In doing that, many also bought video service, too.

“We’ve pulled bb growth from all sorts of places, and shifted share toward us. Some of that share had satellite customers in it, and when they made the conversion to us, they bought video from us.”

Charter also has developed additional products, some over the top, and some related to skinnier packages of traditional cable, which has helped. 

“Through time we will have to mix the mixture of those services so we can maximize our growth potential,” Rutledge said, adding that video growth is still hampered by price pressures associated with the business. “It’s still a highly desired product though, people want it. To the extent there is less cost pressure, you can get more demand.”

While cord-cutting and SVOD services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have helped pare traditional pay TV subscribers, Rutledge said it hasn’t had a big effect on programming costs. He added that while cable companies have paid less in affiliate fees recently, it’s more a factor of fewer video customers, not lower prices.   

“What’s happening is the mix of viewers is changing  because of the packages we’re selling,” Rutledge said. “That’s been the reason that content prices in aggregate have moderated for us. It hasn’t moderated on a price per viewer basis. That’s an important thought because it shows how much money is flowing from customers to content companies through us. In terms of how a linear bundle works in an environment where the same companies that provide content in a linear bundle also sell a premium direct-to-consumer product is a question of, if you cannibalize one, do you put us in a position where we would be willing to drop you or your bundled package, because customers can get your product directly, there is no need for us to pay for that as part of the bundle. Or do you have a dual content strategy where you have good content in your linear product, but different content in your direct-to-consumer products? It’s yet to be determined whether owners of content are going to try to support both worlds or not.”

The FCC has announced the winning bidders in the 3.5 GHz (CBRS) band auction and the biggest winner was Verizon.

The telecom bid $1.893 billion. Cox was the fifth-largest bidder at $212.8 million. Other top five bidders were Wetterhorn Wireless, number two at $912.9 million; Spectrum Wireless Holdings (#3) at $464.2 million and XF Wireless (#4) at $458.7 million.

The FCC auctioned 20,625 out of 22,631 licenses to 228 bidders for total gross proceeds of $4,585,663,345 and net proceeds of $4,543,232,339.

To check out all the winning bidders, go here.

The FCC also broke out the five bidders winning the most licenses. Wetterhorn Wireless was tops with 5,492, followed by SAL Spectrum with 1,569; AMG Technology Investment Group with 1,072; Winstream Services's debtor in possession at 1,014; and XF Wireless at 830.

The FCC also provided a timeline for license applications and payments. Long-form
license applications and down payments (20% of the winning bid) are due by 6 p.m.(ET) Sept. 17. The balance is due Oct. 1 at 6 p.m.

"We congratulate the WISPA members who won licenses, many of whom participated in spectrum auctions for the first time," said Louis Peraertz, VP of policy for WISPA, the wireless internet service providers association. "Bidding activity was fierce, especially so in localities outside of major metro areas. This proves smaller bidding licensing actually bring more money to the U.S. Treasury, as well as more diverse bidders to the plate, ultimately helping American broadband consumers get the services they demand and need."

The FCC Tuesday (Aug. 25) concluded its first 5G midband spectrum auction, the CBRS auction (auction 105). The auction launched July 23.

Over 76 rounds, the auction grossed $4,585,663,345, or about the low middle of pre-auction estimates. Winning bids were placed on 20,625 of 22,631 licenses, the most licenses ever offered in one FCC auction, or more than 91.1% of the available licenses.

Related: FCC Launches First 5G Mid-Band Auction 

There were 271 eligible bidders, but the FCC won't identify who won what for "a few days." Among the eligible bidders were AT&T, Cox, Shenandoah Cable TV, USSC, and Windstream.

Sasha Javid, COO of BitPath and former top FCC auction official, suggests who bid what could be quite revealing, providing the answer to how much Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile/Sprint "are willing to pay for spectrum blocks that require frequency coordination and strict power limits?"

The FCC was auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) in the 3550-3650 MHz band. Each license is for a 10 MHz unpaired channel.

The band is being shared by federal and non-federal users, with incumbents--Navy radar, for example--having the top priority, followed by PALs and then general authorized users (GAAs). 

“This is a banner day for American leadership in 5G and for American consumers," said FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. "The 3.5 GHz auction has concluded, and I can say unequivocally:  It was a resounding success. The strong demand for licenses was the direct result of this Commission’s reforms to the rules for the 3.5 GHz band—reforms that would not have been possible without the leadership and hard work of my colleague, Commissioner Mike O’Rielly. This auction has been a key part of our 5G FAST Plan and our ongoing push to make more mid-band spectrum available for 5G.   look forward to this important spectrum being put to use quickly to provide service to the American people.  And I look forward to the Commission making available 280 more megahertz of mid-band spectrum for 5G in the C-band auction beginning on Dec. 8.”

Once the FCC identifies the winners, "we’ll see where licensees have created larger market areas by looking at contiguous counties and spectrum blocks," said Mark Gibson, director, business development, for CommScope. "This will help determine the extent to which licensees are interested in CMA-like or nationwide service. New licensees who want to put their spectrum to use will start deploying CBSDs and claiming their protected coverage in their respective counties. These protected coverage areas, known as PAL Protection Areas (PPAs), will be protected by the SAS from interference from other PPAs and from GAA operation."

Louis Peraertz, VP of policy for WISPA, the alliance of fixed wireless internet service providers, said the $4.585 billion is "a lot of shekels" and suggests "wholehearted confidence in the CBRS sharing model to find and better employ underutilized spectrum. Indications are emerging that the auction resulted in robust competition outside of the top 20 markets, far exceeding expectations. We hope and trust that those of our members who bid were successful. This participation reveals the growth and viability of the fixed wireless model in bringing Internet connectivity to the very hardest to reach Americans. Hungry consumers win. The digital divide becomes that much smaller. Congratulations, FCC and all the auction participants, on a job well done!”

The FCC is trying to goose the CBRS auction yet again. 

On Tuesday (Aug. 25), the auction moved to five, 45-minute, rounds per day, up from four, one-hour rounds.

At press time the bidding continued at a snail's pace, inching up by only a couple hundred thousand dollars or less per round and with only two counties where demand exceeded supply.

Current gross proceeds after round 72 were $4,585,299,031, up only a little over $600,000 in the past four rounds.

Related: CBRS Auction Blows By Spectrum Reserve

In the first-ever auction of midband spectrum for 5G--the second will be the C-Band auction scheduled for November, the FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) — a whopping 22,631 of them in the 3550-3650 MHz Citizens Band Radio Service (CBRS) band. That is the most-ever flexible use licenses made available in a single auction, the FCC says. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel.

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.

Related: FCC Approves CBRS Bidders

The FCC set a reserve price on the spectrum at $107,991,840, which was met in round one. 

The licenses are subject to network build-out conditions and there is an opportunity for sale or lease on the secondary market, according to the CBRS Alliance. 

Pre-auction estimates for total auction proceeds ranged from about $2 billion to as much as $10 billion.

Mark Gibson, director, business development, at CommScope, and a board member of the CBRS Alliance and Wireless Innovation Forum, calls the auction historic for a number of reasons. "First, this is the most licenses ever auctioned by the FCC at 22,631. Second, this is the most bidders ever participating in an FCC auction at 271. Third, it’s likely someone will be able to acquire a spectrum license for a little over $1,000. Another notable point is that there is steady interest in small counties." 

He said he thinks the auction will wind up putting some spectrum in the hands of smaller, rural interests, which is one of the FCC's goals. 

The FCC has decided to bump up the number of rounds in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) auction to five, and shorten them to 45 minutes, starting Tuesday, Aug. 25.

RELATED: CBRS Auction Inches Up

That is up from four one-hour rounds.

At press time, the auction had completed 66 rounds with a gross proceeds total of $4,580,094,931. But that total had only grown by a few million dollars per round over the last several rounds.

After round 66, there only 14 counties with more demand for spectrum licenses than supply.

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) — a whopping 22,631 of them in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz band. That is the most-ever flexible use licenses maDe available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10-MHz unpaired channel.

The auction is intended "to further deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced spectrum-based services in the United States." 

The FCC set a reserve price on the spectrum at $107,991,840, which was met in round one.

Pre-auction estimates for total auction proceeds ranged from about $2 billion to as much as $10 billion.

Mark Gibson, director, business development, at CommScope, and a board member of the CBRS Alliance and Wireless Innovation Forum, calls the auction historic for a number of reasons. "First, this is the most licenses ever auctioned by the FCC at 22,631. Second, this is the most bidders ever participating in an FCC auction at 271. Third, it’s likely someone will be able to acquire a spectrum license for a little over $1,000. Another notable point is that there is steady interest in small counties."

He said he thinks the auction will wind up putting some spectrum in the hands of smaller, rural interests, which is one of the FCC's goals. 

After 48 rounds of bidding, the FCC's CBRS license auction has drawn $4,246,482,850 in gross proceeds. 

Pre-auction estimates ranged from about $2 billion to as much as $10 billion. 

Monday was the second day of four, one-hour rounds, a change the FCC made from three, 1.5 hour rounds to speed the auction to its completion. 

Mark Gibson, director, business development, at CommScope, and a board member of the CBRS Alliance and Wireless Innovation Forum, has been following the auction closely, said it looks to be winding down. There are currently only 67 counties out of more than 3,000 where demand is greater than supply. 

Gibson calls the auction historic for a number of reasons. "First, this is the most licenses ever auctioned by the FCC at 22,631. Second, this is the most bidders ever participating in an FCC auction at 271. Third, it’s likely someone will be able to acquire a spectrum license for a little over $1,000. Another notable point is that there is steady interest in small counties." 

He said he thinks the auction will wind up putting some spectrum in the hands of smaller, rural interests, which is one of the FCC's goals.  

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is them most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel.   

The auction is intended "to further deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced spectrum-based services in the United States."  

The FCC set a reserve price on the spectrum at $107,991,840, which was met in round one. 

The FCC will goose the CBRS auction beginning Thursday. 

The commission said Wednesday (Aug. 12) that starting Aug. 14, it will move to four, one-hour rounds per day. 

The bidding has been in three, 1.5 hour rounds, since July 29. It is not unusual for the FCC to shorten the rounds and increase the number as a way to speed up the auction. 

Currently, the auction has completed 38 rounds with gross proceeds of $3,476,360,983. Gross proceeds after round 36 were $3,293,554,627 and $3,384,621,416 after round 37, so that is increases of only about $100 million per day, compared the the previous week, when bidding increased by over $1.5 billion in only five days.

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is them most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel.  

The auction is intended "to further deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced spectrum-based services in the United States." 

The FCC set a reserve price on the spectrum at $107,991,840, which was met in round one.  

After the 31st round, the FCC's CBRS auction (auction 105) has raised $2,576,015,200 in gross proceeds.

It is the auction of 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel.  

Related: CBRS Auction Tops $1 Billion

The auction is intended "to further deployment of fifth-generation (5G) wireless, the Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced spectrum-based services in the United States." 

The action will resume Monday (Aug. 10) with no change to the format of three rounds per day, one-and-a-half-hours per round.

Analysts at law firm Wiley Rein, which has been following the auction closely, points out that bids have been places in all but 18 counties (15 in Alaska, two in American Samoa, and one in the Northern Marianas).

They say that heading into week four of the auction, bidding remains strong but that some bidding could shift from more higher-priced markets to less expensive ones.

The FCC's CBRS spectrum auction in its ninth day pushed past the $1 billion mark Friday (July 31) after its final round, with aggregate gross proceeds of $1,035,524,778, up from $962,334,629 in round 16. 

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction. There are 271 qualified bidders.  

Sasha Javid, COO of BitPath and former top FCC auction official, says that questions the auction should answer include whether "new developments in the C-band proceeding" [the other midband spectrum on the auction block this year] will impact bidding during the course of this auction...particularly if bidding in this auction is extended?" and how much bidders like Chevron and Deere & Company) will be willing to pay for spectrum to create their own wireless networks. 

The licenses are subject to network build-out conditions and there is an opportunity for sale or lease on the secondary market, according to the CBRS Alliance. 

According to an alliance economic analysis from the alliance, the CBRS spectrum represents $80 billion-plus in economic value. 

According to the FCC the rounds will remain three per day, each 1.5 hours. 

After 11 rounds Thursday (July 30), the FCC's CBRS auction had drawn $$723,243,566 in gross proceeds.

That was up from $675,158,287 in round 10, $632,051,948 in round nine and an increase of more than $200 million million over round six's $519,155,888 total on Monday (July 27).

The auction, the FCC's first-ever flexible-license mid-band auction, began with a single, six-hour, round; moved to two, two-hour rounds, for the succeeding two days, and on Wednesday shifted to three, hour-and-a-half rounds until further notice, which is at least through Thursday, according to the FCC's web site.

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel. There are 271 qualified bidders.

The band is being shared by federal and non-federal users, with incumbents--Navy radar, for example--having the top priority, followed by PALs and then general authorized users (GAAs). 

Sasha Javid, COO of BitPath and former top FCC auction official, said that a couple of the key questions the auction should answer is how much Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile-Sprint is willing to pay for spectrum that requires frequency coordination and "strict" power limits and whether Charter and Comcast (or Dish) will "take the plunge" and bid "in a meaningful way."

The FCC's midband CBRS spectrum auction topped $500 million Tuesday (July 28) after round-six bidding that pushed the total up by over $60 million to $519,155,888. 

Related: FCC Launches First 5G Mid-Band Auction 

The auction, the FCC's first-ever flexible-license mid-band auction, began with a single, six-hour, round; moved to two, two-hour rounds, for the succeeding two days, and on Wednesday (July 29), will shift to three, hour-and-a-half rounds until further notice, which is at least through Thursday, according to the FCC's web site. 

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel. There are 271 qualified bidders. 

The band is being shared by federal and non-federal users, with incumbents--Navy radar, for example--having the top priority, followed by PALs and then general authorized users (GAAs).  

Sasha Javid, COO of BitPath and former top FCC auction official, says that a couple of the key questions the auction should answer is how much Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile/Sprint is willing to pay for spectrum that requires frequency coordination and "strict" power limits and whether Charter and Comcast (or Dish) will "take the plunge" and bid "in a meaningful way." 

After coming strong out of the blocks the FCC's first midband 5G auction (of CBRS licenses in the 3.5 GHz band) appears to have settled into a slow but steady pace, though one that could wind up delivering for the FCC, says one veteran auction executive. 

Related: Unpacking the CBRS Auction 

After tripling its $107,991,840 reserve price in the first, six-hour, round Thursday (July 2e), to close with net proceeds of $357,344,200, the auction has been progressing at a more measured pace in the two, two-hour rounds the FCC is now holding per day.  

After round three, the proceeds were $388,732,380, which ticked up to $424,882,023 after round four, both on Friday.  

As of the end of Monday's (July 27) first round, the total was $455,953,607. 

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is the most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel. There are 271 qualified bidders. 

Currently, there are 1,184 counties where bidding demand for spectrum exceeds the supply. 

"With 271 qualified bidders and licenses starting cheap for county-level licenses, I guess that [demand] is not surprising,' says BitPath COO Sasha Javid. "If demand stays this robust, the FCC will be very happy." Javid is former FCC chief data officer and was legal advisor to the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force.  

The band is being shared by federal and non-federal users, with incumbents--Navy radar, for example--having the top priority, followed by PALs and then general authorized users (GAAs).  

"This represents the first auction of spectrum blocks under the FCC's new spectrum sharing regime where winners will be required to coordinate with the frequency coordinator to assign the specific channel on a dynamic basis," says Javid. "It also represents the first opportunity in many years for wireless providers to acquire valuable mid-band spectrum for 5G." 

After round two of the FCC's first auction of flexible-license midband spectrum (the 3.5 GHz band) Friday (July 24), the gross proceeds were $388,732,380, up a little over $30 million from $357,344,200 after the first, six-hour, round Thursday. 

The auction has already the FCC's floor price for the spectrum, which it did easily on day one.  

Round two was the first of two, two-hour rounds being held Friday. 

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz (CBRS) band.   

Related: FCC Approves CBRS Auction Framework

The auction--the most licenses ever offered at one time--is meant to further the buildout of 5G and the internet of things (IoT). 

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G. 

While the FCC is playing up the auction, Tom Power, SVP and general counsel at CTIA, told a Senate Commerce hearing audience that like Thursday's opening day for pandemic-era baseball, they were playing under different rules and don't know how it is going to go. He pointed out that due to protections for incumbent band users, wireless carriers are limited to about one-seventh the power they get to use in other bands, so building 5G out beyond urban areas with the 3.5 GHz spectrum presented a challenge.

After round one of the FCC's first auction of flexible (CBRS) licenses for midband spectrum, gross proceeds were $357,344,200, which already met, and in fact blew by, the aggregate reserve price set for the spectrum in the auction, which was $107,991,840 net of bidding credits. 

FCC Launches First 5G Mid-Band Auction

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band.  

Following the first round, there were 1,439 counties where there was more demand than supply, 60 where it was equal, and 1,734 where demand was still less than supply. 

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.

The FCC is holding its first ever auction of mid-band spectrum for 5G. 

It is the auction of 70 MHz worth of county-based Priority Access Licenses (PALs) (a whopping 22,631 of them) in the 3550-3650 MHz 93.5 GHz) band. It is them most-ever flexible-use licenses available in a single auction, the FCC said. Each license will be a 10 MHz unpaired channel. 

That band is being shared by federal and non-federal users, with incumbents--Navy radar, for example--having the top priority, followed by PALs and then general authorized users (GAAs). 

Related: FCC, NTIA Need to Be Dynamic Spectrum Duo 

“5G is critical to America’s global economic and technological leadership, and the start of the 3.5 GHz auction today is a key milestone in our work advancing this national priority,” said FCC chairman Ajit Pai marking firing the virtual starting gun, as it were. “Today, we celebrate the door opening to a wide array of potential bidders in the FCC’s CBRS spectrum auction (Auction 105)," said commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who has been a driving force behind the auction.  

Among the bidders are AT&T, Cox, Shenandoah Cable TV, Cable One, USSC, Verizon, and Windstream. 

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.

Related: FCC Approves CBRS Auction Framework

The move was billed as targeted changes to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G. The main adjustments were the decision to increase the sizes of priority access licenses (PALs) from census tracts to the larger county-sized licenses, a compromise from the larger partial economic area (PEA) licenses some had advocated for.

Cries of 'spectrum scarcity' are understandable but misplaced so long as the government uses the tools at hand.

That is according to the testimony of Michael Calabrese, director of the Wireless Future Project at New America's Open Technology Institute for a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing Thursday (July 23). 

The hearing comes the same day the FCC is launching its CBRS priority access license auction (see below). 

Calabrese says both the surge in demand and some contentious FCC proceedings to free up spectrum for 5G have left the impression that spectrum is scarce. While he concedes it is tough it tough to clear and repurpose low- and mid-band spectrum for exclusive licensing--witness the battles of the C-Band spectrum item, but he said there is a bundle of spectrum that can be unlocked. 

The key: dynamic spectrum sharing, with both the FCC and the National Telecommunications & Information Administration, the White House's chief communications policy advisor, on the same page. They have been at odds over how to free up spectrum for 5G, but Calabrese said they need to collaborate and cooperate to reach their shared goal of deploying 5G to handle the exponential growth in data demand over the coming years. 

Related: Divided FCC Votes to Proceed with C-Band Auction

He points to a Cisco annual report showing that mobile data traffic will grow at a compound rate of 36% through 2022. "The demand for spectrum capacity will grow further as the Internet of Things (IoT) emerges and machine-to-machine (M2M) data transfers require more and more capacity, projected by Cisco to represent 50% of all devices--smart meters, video surveillance, healthcare monitoring, package tracking--and connections by 20203. 

Calabrese talked up the FCC's framework for sharing the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum, which authorizes both licensed and "lightly licensed" access to the 3550-3700 MHz used for Navy radar. The framework relies on multiple frequency coordination systems (spectrum access systems, or SAS) for its dynamic sharing framework, with multiple SAS--the Navy, as well as "Priority Access Licenses (PALs), and opportunistic (effectively unlicensed) General Authorized Access (GAA) users." having to make sure they are protecting incumbents and each other from interference. 

There is also a "use it or share it" impetus by giving any operator access to unused spectrum on an opportunistic basis. 

"One sign of the band’s success is that tens of thousands of CBRS base stations have been deployed since the band opened up just a few months ago, pre-auction and despite the pandemic," said Calabrese. 

Related: NCTA Says FCC Needs to Clarify CBRS Protections

As to the FCC/NTIA turf wars that are not productive, Calabrese/OTI has some suggestions:  

1. [T]he Executive Office of the President needs to engage directly in guiding and mediating disputes that arise when the FCC and NTIA cannot reach a consensus. 

2. "[T]he White House needs to drive and finalize a National Spectrum Strategy that outlines a coherent set of priorities and strategies that can help shape a consensus among the FCC, NTIA, and federal users..." 

3. "[T]he current MOU [memorandum of understanding] that governs coordination on spectrum matters between the NTIA and FCC should be updated and enhanced." 

4. "[t]he coordination and consultation process itself needs to be more transparent to stakeholders."

 On July 23, 221 companies will bid on 22,631 available provisional access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz band in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction for Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. 

CBRS PAL Auction 105 will be one of the largest and most ambitious spectrum auctions in U.S. history, with Verizon Communications, T-Mobile, AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, Dish Network, Cable One, CenturyLink, Cincinnati Bell, Frontier, Mediacom, U.S. Cellular and Windstream Communications among the U.S. wireless internet service providers vying for a piece of what has been dubbed the “innovation band.”

In addition to all the top U.S. mobile and cable operators interested in midband spectrum for 5G applications, a broad-ranging constituency including everything from energy and utility companies to industrial manufacturers to universities will be on hand, attempting to further a vast chasm of other CBRS aims.

Federated Wireless has been on the forefront of developing commercial applications in the 150-megahertz section of spectrum existing in the 3.5-gigahertz band known as CBRS.

To better understand the CBRS PAL auction and its importance, we conducted an email chat with Iyad Tarazi, the former Sprint and Nextel executive who serves as co-founder, president and CEO of Arlington, Virginia-based Federated Wireless.

B+C: What are some key differences of the PAL auction versus traditional licensed frequency auctions in the past?

Iyad Tarazi: By design, the FCC structured the auction so that it would be similar to previous auctions, using an ascending clock auction format, and applying common forms, deadlines and payments for the application and bidding process. Given the intrinsic nature of the CBRS band, however, there are some notable differences to this auction, including:

• The auction covers a total of 22,631 PALs nationwide — the largest number of spectrum licenses ever made available for bidding in a single auction.

• PAL license holders won’t be assigned channels as in a normal auction. Rather, licensees will be dynamically assigned a specific channel by a frequency coordinator.

• The rules allow bidders to bid for no more than four generic blocks of spectrum per county. 

• The spectrum aggregation limit of 40 megahertz will ensure the availability of PALs for at least two users in the counties where there is the greatest likelihood of high demand for such spectrum.

• For the first time in an FCC spectrum auction, it incorporates an activity upper limit to mitigate the possibility of a bidder losing eligibility.

• The auction applies bidding credit caps of $25 million for small businesses and $10 million for rural service providers, as well as a $10 million cap on the overall amount of bidding credits that a small business bidder may apply to winning licenses in smaller markets. 

B+C: How will the licenses be carved up and awarded?

IT: Industry analysts are predicting that auction proceeds could total around $4.4 billion.

The FCC rules state that the geographic license size is county-based. The auction will offer up to seven PALs in each county-based license area, for a total of 22,631 PALs nationwide.

The auction permits bidding on a county-by-county basis and allows any one bidder to bid for no more than four generic blocks (40 megahertz) of spectrum per county. Each PAL will consist of a 10-MHz unpaired channel in the 3.55-3.65 GHz band, dynamically assigned by the Spectrum Access System (not static). 

The spectrum aggregation limit of 40 MHz is designed to ensure the availability of PALs for at least two PAL users in the counties where there is the greatest likelihood of high demand for CBRS spectrum. This aggregation limit will also apply to spectrum acquired through the secondary market (such as leasing).

B+C: How long will the auction take to complete?

IT: Our best guess is that the auction will take roughly two months to successfully complete all rounds of bidding.

Under the clock auction format, the auction will proceed in a series of rounds, with bidding conducted simultaneously for all spectrum blocks in all counties available in the auction. During each bidding round, the bidding system will announce a per-block clock price in each county. The bidding rounds will continue until, for all counties, the total number of blocks that bidders demand does not exceed the supply of available blocks. At that point, those bidders indicating demand for a block at the final price will be deemed winning bidders. 

B+C: What about the secondary PAL market?

IT: The FCC’s rules require PAL holders to demonstrate substantial service before the end of their initial 10-year license term. For the first time, the FCC’s rules dictate that spectrum isn’t reserved for the licensee’s exclusive use. Rather, any frequencies designated for priority access that are not in use by a Priority Access Licensee may be utilized by [lower-priority] General Authorized Access (GAA) users.

I expect that a secondary market for PAL licenses will develop as PAL winners build out their networks and find areas of excess capacity. The rules allow the license holder to lease this excess capacity to other users.

B+C: Once the auction occurs, how fast will PAL spectrum be implemented?

IT: After full certification was announced in January, the growth curve became a hockey stick. PAL bidders are either already deploying CBRS equipment using GAA, or they have fully tested the gear in their labs and field trials and have deployment plans in place for PAL. The day the FCC issues the PAL licenses, the data will be plugged into the Spectrum Access System (SAS) in order to manage the spectrum according to the three-tiered CBRS rules. For these reasons, we don’t expect to see a delay between PAL auction completion and start of deployment. 

NCTA and one of its biggest members, Charter, have asked the FCC to clarify that new wireless licensees in the C-Band (occupying 3.7 GHz-3.98) can't interfere with Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) service in the adjacent 3.5 GHz band. 

Related: Divided FCC Votes to Proceed with C-Band Auction

Charter petitioned the FCC for that "clarification," saying under the technical rules the FCC adopted for the C-Band, such harmful interference is "highly likely," and NCTA-the Internet & Television Association filed comments in support of that position. 

The CBRS license auction is scheduled to begin July 23. The C-Band auction is scheduled to begin in December.

NCTA and Charter concede the FCC took steps to try and ensure that the wireless carriers who will be getting the lower portion of the C-Band at auction can peacefully co-exist with CBRS, the commission " stopped short of explicitly stating that all CBRS operations are entitled to protection from harmful interference from adjacent operations in the 3.7-3.98 GHz band," NCTA said in its comments. 

"In particular," said NCTA, that is "because CBRS operations and new 3.7 GHz Service Licensees will use the same spectrum for both downlink and uplink operations...it is possible that downlink operations in one band will occur at the same time as uplink operations in the adjacent band. If a higher-powered C-Band base station using TDD is transmitting while a nearby CBRS base station is trying to receive, the CBRS base station will suffer blocking interference—that is, it will be overwhelmed, and will not be able to hear the user equipment across the entire CBRS band, leading to "coverage loss and throughput reduction” for licensees in the CBRS band. 

NCTA joined Charter in asking the FCC to make that clarification by making wireless carriers hwo get C-Band licenses to "work in good faith" with CBRS operators to resolve any harmful interference. 

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (CBRS) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.

The FCC has approved the first batch of short-form applications for the July 23 CBRS license auction (delayed from its initial planned June 25 start. It features the most licenses ever up for bid in a single auction--22,631, but the majority of the applications still need work.

The FCC is auctioning 70 MHz of the 3.5 GHz (CBRS) midband spectrum for 5G, an auction of priority access licenses (or PALs).

Of the 348 short-form applications filed, the FCC's Wireless Bureau says that 106 applications are complete, with another 242 incomplete, but the latter have the opportunity to fix that.

The approved bidders have until June 19 to pony up their upfront payments, after which they will be considered qualified bidders. The incomplete applications must be corrected and upfront payments submitted by the same date.

Among the approved applications are ones from AT&T, Cox, Shenandoah Cable TV, USSC, and Windstream.

Among the incomplete submissions are those from T-Mobile, Verizon,and Cable One.

Related: FCC Approves CBRS Auction Framework

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.

The move was billed as targeted changes to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G. The main adjustments were the decision to increase the sizes of priority access licenses (PALs) from census tracts to the larger county-sized licenses, a compromise from the larger partial economic area (PEA) licenses some had advocated for.

Software and services vendor Amdocs has received FCC authorization to operate as a commercial Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrator for private wireless networks built on 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum.

The SAS approval follows an FCC review of Amdocs’ Initial Commercial Deployment report and consultation with the Department of Defense and National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

St. Louis-based Amdocs applied for SAS authorization at the same time Federated Wireless, Google, CommScope and Sony did. But it was not approved by the FCC in September as those companies were.

Also read: CBRS Gets FCC Approvals for Initial Commercial Deployments

Amdocs said its software and consulting service capabilities, including SAS, and its network expertise will help bridge the worlds of enterprise IT, Internet of Things (IoT) and LTE/5G /private networks to address the unique communications and connected-applications requirements of wireless service providers, utilities, healthcare organizations and other businesses to better enable them to meet the needs of their customers and the digital society of today.

Amdocs offers a suite of services and solutions covering wireless network design, rollout, testing and operations for CBRS and non-CBRS based networks.

“At a time where high-speed connectivity, including 5G, is more important than ever, the democratization of radio spectrum through CBRS enables service providers to deliver new public and private wireless networks, while enterprises across industries will benefit from improved connectivity and service flexibility,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, group president of media, network and technology at Amdocs. “Amdocs is excited to support the accelerated design and delivery of next-generation networks with our ecosystem of network solutions and services, including our FCC-approved SAS platform.”

The FCC has given CBRS users in the 3.65 GHz band extra time to comply with requirements that they have properly certified equipment. Those users supply high-speed broadband, including to rural areas.

Back in 2015, the FCC gave those operators until April 17, 2020. But given the current coronavirus crisis, the FCC said Thursday (March 19) that it would now give them until Oct. 17, 2020 to come into compliance. The FCC said it would not impact the planned June 25 auction of priority access licenses (PALs) in the 3.5 GHz band.

Related: FCC Approves Framework for CBRS Band Auction

The FCC wants to make sure that, among other things, rural broadband customers don't lose service, "something especially important given the role Internet connectivity will play in keeping us safe and in touch with the world during the COVID-19 pandemic," said WISPA, the wireless internet association that had asked for the blanket extension, though the FCC's Wireless Bureau issued the extension on its own motion.

“This is a logical delay of the transition during the pandemic to ensure that current licensees, like WISPs and electric utilities, can keep their eyes on the ball when it comes to helping consumers," said FCC chair Ajit Pai. "We can allow this flexibility while still maintaining a reasonable timeline for this transition."

WISPA explained why, after five years to come into compliance, the extension was needed. "The complexity and several year delay of certifying, developing and integrating numerous interdependent parts to make the CBRS band a reality threw the overall transition process off schedule and out of kilter," it said. "The CBRS band only recently saw full commercial deployment, two years behind what was anticipated. This had a cascading effect on the rest of the process, with the hardware, software and services ecosystem just now coming online. Further, WISPs recently learned that some popular pieces of equipment they employ in the 3.65 GHz band will never become CBRS compliant. The COVID-19 crisis has only added to these challenges, limiting supply of CBRS-compliant gear."

The Wireless Bureau said the CBRS Part 90 licensees affected "will have more time to transition and can use this period to remain focused on keeping Americans connected."

The FCC voted Friday (Feb. 28) to establish the rules for a competitive auction of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band, yet another step in the FCC's race to 5G. 

The vote was unanimous and drew praise from some quarters for the compromise decision to change the draft proposal to limit the licenses auctioned to county-sized, rather than bundle them into larger CMA (cellular market areas), which could have favored larger players. 

Related: FCC Says 5G Services Are Good to Go 

The auction is scheduled to begin June 25 and features the most licenses ever up for bid in a single auction--22,631. 

Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, who was the point person on the item, addressed the license compromise in his statements from the dais. 

"[W]e decided not to pursue the option of CMA-level bidding packages, as previously proposed," he said. "While I remain unconvinced by the arguments against it, I must take into account the views of all the potential bidders. Declining to pursue package bidding here should help calm the waters for any remaining complainers, without altering auction participation or results." 

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, who is more often critical of the FCC Republican majority's spectrum-clearing approaches and timetables, had some encouraging words before adding the sting in the tail. 

Related: Charter Moving Fast on CBRS

She called the vote "a major milestone in United States spectrum policy," and "a radical—a framework for sharing that can turn spectrum scarcity into abundance. That’s very cool."

The sting was that she said the FCC had been hemming and hawing instead of acting and that the moment was bittersweet because it should have happened a lot sooner.

The item approved Friday: 

1. "Adopts an ascending clock auction format in which bidders indicate their demand for generic license blocks in specific counties as prices increase (licensees will be dynamically assigned a specific channel by frequency coordinators known as Spectrum Access Systems); 

2. "Permits bidding on a county-by-county basis, and allows bidders to bid for no more than four generic blocks of spectrum per county; 

3.  "Incorporates for the first time in a Commission spectrum auction an “activity upper limit” to mitigate the possibility of a bidder losing bidding eligibility in certain circumstances; and 

4. "Adopts bidding credit caps of $25 million for small businesses and $10 million for rural service providers, as well as a $10 million cap on the overall amount of bidding credits that a small business bidder may apply to winning licenses in smaller markets." 

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23, 2018, to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game. The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G.  

NCTA-The Internet & Television Association, praised the move, but wanted more.  

"NCTA also welcomes the adoption of auction procedures for the 3.5 GHz band that embrace bidding on right-size licenses to set Auction 105 up for success," it said. "We urge the Commission to turn its attention now to the mid-band pipeline for unlicensed use, and look forward to near-term action on the 5.9 and 6 GHz bands.” 

It was at the prodding of House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) at an FCC oversight hearing that prompted chairman Ajit Pai to signal fines were coming. The congressman was glad the fines were being proposed, he was not happy with the amounts. 

“Today’s notice by the FCC confirms what I have said from the beginning — carriers have a duty to protect consumers’ real-time location data and the FCC must enforce the law in order to protect the personal safety of consumers across the country," he said. "While I am glad the FCC is finally proposing fines for this egregious behavior, it represents little more than the cost of doing business for these carriers. Further, the Commission is still a long way from collecting these fines and holding the companies fully accountable. I will continue to closely monitor this important issue.” 

“We applaud the FCC for continuing to move forward with making this mid-band spectrum available for commercial use," said AT&T executive VP Joan Marsh. "The Commission is to be commended for working collaboratively across government agencies and the wireless industry to develop a unique spectrum sharing solution that accommodates government incumbents while permitting new licensed and unlicensed users.”

Charter Communications’ top wireless executive, Craig Cowden, said the cable operator is looking to follow Comcast’s model of dual-purposing residential customer modems as WiFi hotspots.

“We see a benefit of doing that,” Cowden said, speaking last week at FierceWireless’ Next Gen Wireless Networks Summit in Dallas.

Like Comcast does with Xfinity Mobile, Charter offloads expensive MVNO cellular traffic on the Verizon network by using its network of WiFi hotspots. But Comcast’s public hotspot reach is much bigger, with much of 19 million hotspots across its footprint coming from residential customer routers which offer dual-purpose public WiFi support.

“We already offload significant traffic onto WiFi,” Cowden said. “Comcast has 19 million hotspots that are called home-as-a-hotspot, using the existing router in the home.

He added, “We’re always looking at how we can optimize the cost structure of our products.”

Cowden also spoke about Charter’s plan to use Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum to create its own pockets of cellular access, from which it could offload MVNO traffic to customers who are equipped with dual-SIM phones.

Charter is currently testing that model in New York and Los Angeles.

“We have done a lot of testing with small cells using dual SIM,” Cowden said. “We tested CBRS in 2017 in Tampa and Charlotte. We had eight different vendors just to test how CBRS would work. At end of 2018 and through now, we’ve done the next phase of dual SIM testing in New York and Los Angeles, where we have prototype devices to test the seamless switching between small cells and the macro domain.”

In recent months, cable industry analysts have gushed at the wireless convergence possibilities potentially wrought for operators using the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum.

For Charter Communications, that future isn’t necessarily here. But the check is certainly in the mail, with the No. 2 U.S. operator now openly discussing its plans to use CBRS technology to offload mobile data traffic from its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) arrangement with Verizon, as well as for establishing fixed wireless services in rural areas its hybrid fiber coaxial network can’t reach.

In fact, Charter’s ongoing tests seem to be going so well that chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge told equity analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that the operator might bid on private CBRS spectrum at auction next year to augment the free spectrum it’s been conducting tests with.

“We haven’t determined that, but we’re looking at it closely,” Rutledge said. “We’re uniquely positioned to take advantage of wireline and wireless network convergence over time with our fully distributed wireline network.”

Fixed Wireless Play

Speaking at last month’s SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo in New Orleans, Craig Cowden, Charter senior vice president of wireless, said the operator could deploy triple-play fixed wireless services based on CBRS in rural areas, possibly as soon as the end of 2020.

Charter is currently conducting tests in rural North Carolina in which CBRS is being used to set up private LTE fixed-wireless networks in areas out of the reach of the operator’s HFC network.

The technology could come in handy for Charter in states like New York, with which it has made merger-based agreements with regulators to extend broadband access.

With the Federal Communications Commission having just approved initial commercial deployment of CBRS, Charter is looking to deliver the minimum broadband speed specifications in rural areas — 25 Megabits per second downstream and 3 Mbps upstream — while also offering customers in the newly claimed fixed wireless terrain triple-play services.

Simultaneously, Charter is testing the use of CBRS spectrum in New York and Los Angeles as a means of making its mobile service more profitable. Both Charter and Comcast have mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) deals with Verizon Communications to lease use of the No. 1 U.S. wireless operator’s LTE cellular network.

Charter added 294,000 mobile lines in the third quarter, while narrowing its losses in the quarter on the Spectrum Mobile service to $145 million. Still, given the usage costs of the Verizon network, analysts have been bearish on both Spectrum Mobile and Comcast’s Xfinity Mobile.

“It should be clear by this point that the current [MVNO] deal is a money loser for the cable operators; it’s not profitable and it likely never will be,” MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a note to investors over the summer.

Comcast, which is also testing CBRS usage, at least has the ability to offload some of that expensive MVNO usage via its 19,000 WiFi hotspots. But Charter only has around 500,000 WiFi hotspots.

Charter, however, envisions a future in which it toggles customers, equipped with dual-SIM handsets, seamlessly between the leased Verizon LTE network to its own CBRS-based wireless network, which in turn would use Charter’s DOCSIS 3.1 network for backhaul.

“We see targeted opportunities for mobile offload,” Cowden said. “Our data shows that something like 85% of outdoor mobile traffic takes place in 15% of geographic locations.”

‘Infrastructure-Based’ Agreement

Under the scenarios being tested, Charter could deploy strand-mounted small cells and create its own wireless networks that would use CBRS spectrum. Charter would create an “infrastructure-based” MVNO, similar to what Altice USA is establishing with its Sprint MVNO deal.

“We’ve talked about dual SIM technology opportunities and the testing that we’ve done, and we’re quite optimistic about the capability of that strategy,” Rutledge said. “We’re quite optimistic about the ability to make select investments in areas where traffic dictates in such a way as to move services that we pay rent for on to our own platform and that opportunity already exists with WiFi and a significant number of our customers.”

Under this scenario, analysts find the Comcast and Charter MVNO deals far more compelling “If they can offload anything close to half the cost of monthly service onto their own network, it would be a game-changer,” Moffett said in a note to investors. “In essence, they would be bifurcating the network into two buckets.”

At Cable-Tec Expo, cable technologists continued to hammer home the manufactured marketing theme “10G,” a likeminded vision of the future in which hybrid fiber-coax networks, aligned in virtualized, distributed schemes, deliver broadband speeds in excess of 10 gigabits per second using next-generation DOCSIS iterations.

In fact, this is appears to be a near future for Comcast, which said it’s now reaching more than 100,000 customers with virtualized Converged Cable Access Platform and Distributed Access Architecture. But for the cable industry, that future isn’t necessarily the only future.

Related: Cable Access Equipment Spending Fell 40% in Q2

We finally caught up with one of the bigger vendors of cable access technology, Casa Systems, after the show. Speaking to the Boston-based Paul Hanna, chief marketing officer for Casa, for about 45 minutes, not once did he utter "10G," the term, coined last year by NCTA chief Michael Powell as a means of countering the wireless industry’s 5G hype.

In fact, Hanna described Casa as positioning itself for a 5G future, in which cable networks, focused on backhaul and wireless convergence, are configured with both HFC and fiber-to-the-home alignments, slowly evolving into virtualization and Distributed Access Architecture, as well new niche wireless opportunities like CBRS. Casa's product portfolio, he said, is adjusting to broadly span the core, access and edge needs of the various--and very different--service provider alignments.

Indeed, no two networks will look exactly alike, said Hanna, who views the recent slump in the cable access business as the cyclical culmination of years of investment by operators into DOCSIS technologies. Having been a leading proponent of the current iteration of DOCSIS, 3.1, Casa sees a rebound for the access tech business on an unspecified horizon.

“Our customers, writ large, view the process of network transformation and virtualization as a long term evolution,” Hanna said. “This is not an overnight phenomenon. And it’s not the path that Comcast is taking. Evolving one’s network to become web scale, that’s a decades long process. We’re going to be living in a hybrid environment for quite some time.”

Related: Cable’s 5G Backhaul Opportunity 'Moving From Concept to Reality,' Analyst Says

Casa, he noted, sees a very specific, immediate opportunity in 5G backhaul—a notion buttressed earlier this week, post-Expo, by Gregory Williams, analyst for equity research company Cowen.

“Cable is the only one that could deploy at scale at a reasonable cost, and expeditiously,” Williams wrote in a note to investors Monday. “Specifically, cable has the plant assets and unique footprint (reach) for small cell backhaul, mid-haul or fronthaul.”

As Williams noted, the cable industry, led by CableLabs, is currently working on “low-latency X-haul,” “a technology specifically designed to reduce the latency experienced by any mobile traffic while traversing the DOCSIS transport network on its way to the internet."

Meanwhile, ahead of the conference, the NCTA published a white paper noting that, not only does hybrid fiber coax (HFC) have a much larger footprint than fiber (around 3.5x more), fiber lacks the power supply needed to make backhaul happen.

“Capacity is a never ending requirement, and that will become increasingly so in 5G world,” Hanna explained, "and 5G is of absolute strategic synergy with coax. All of our customers are trying to figure out how to get revenue with the new capabilities that 5G networks can bring to the table.”

While unwilling to get too far into the weeds in regard to one of Casa’s customers, Hanna pointed to Charter Communications, and its multi-pronged trials of emerging tech including Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), as a prime example.

Related: Charter’s Cowden: MSO Could Launch Fixed Wireless CBRS as Soon as the End of 2020

One application Charter is testing is using CBRS to provide broadband, within its footprint, but beyond the rural reach of its HFC infrastructure. At Cable-Tec Expo, Charter wireless chief Craig Cowden said the operator could, as soon as the end of next year, deploy multi-play services to these rural areas, complete with 25 Mbps downstream broadband, using CBRS.

On our call, Hanna sold the ability of Charter to use Casa’s Axiom software for unified, cloud-based network control across its virtualized, distributed HFC and CBRS infrastructures.

“What we have done is unify the cable data plane and the wireless data plane into a universal edge data plane,” Hanna said. 

Again, it's not a 10G thing. “We have built a converged 5G portal. And we’re in a position to uniquely tailor 5G solutions," he added.

NEW ORLEANS - Charter Communications, which is currently testing a variety of uses cases of CBRS, could potentially be ready to go to market around the end of next year with an application that enables cost-effective deployment of fixed network services in rural areas.

So said Craig Cowden, senior VP of wireless tech Charter, speaking at a Light Reading-sponsored morning event this morning (Oct. 2) at the SCTE-ISBE Cable-Tec Expo convention.

Charter is currently testing the use of Citizens Broadband Radio Service in North Carolina—a market, Cowden said was selected on purpose "because we wanted a worst-case scenario for RF distribution.”

The MSO, he noted, is looking to extend fixed wireless services within the rural buffers of its footprint, but beyond the feasible reach of its hybrid fiber-coaxial network. With the FCC having just green-lit initial commercial deployment of CBRS, Charter is looking to deliver the minimum broadband speed specifications—25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps—while also offering customers in the newly claimed fixed wireless terrain triple-play services.

Assuming successful testing, Corden said initial CBRS-based fixed wireless services could start rolling out around the end of 2020.

Notably, Charter recently settled with the state of New York State, after the state sued the cable company for not fulfilling a merger-related promise to bring rural broadband to the region.

Speaking at an investor event last month, chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said Charter is currently building out some low-density broadband in New York. “We find that it’s economic. There may be an opportunity to accelerate low-density construction on the fringes of our business going forward.”

Separately, Charter is also testing CBRS in New York and Los Angeles as a means of shifting some cellular network usage for its Spectrum Mobile product off the Verizon MVNO. The scheme Charter is testing uses dual-SIMM phones that can switch between MVNO cellular and Charter’s own CBRS-based LTE network.

“We see targeted opportunities for mobile offload,” he said. “Our data shows that something like 85% of outdoor mobile traffic takes place in 15% of geographic locations.”

The FCC has given permission to five so-called “Spectrum Access Systems” (SAS) providers to begin initial commercial deployment of CBRS services.

With the expected green-light, Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google and Sony can now start offering services built around the Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) band, a 150 MHz swath of spectrum, ranging from 3550 - 3700 MHz, lofted in the 3.5 GHz band.

Previously, the U.S. government had used CBRS for a small set of applications, including Navy aircraft carrier communications. Cable operators including Charter Communications have been developing technologies recently to use CBRS as a means of building their own cellular footprint, and there are myriad industrial use cases.

Related: CBRS Specialist Federated Wireless Secures Another $51M in Funding

“We can now expand our nation’s broadband capabilities and deliver on the promise of affordable spectrum needed for 4G and 5G to enable the Internet of Things, develop private LTE networks, and bring much-needed spectrum to rural areas, among other uses,” said Iyad Tarazi, CEO of Federated Wireless, in a statement. "This is a big win for service providers, enterprises and consumers and sets the stage for true innovation in wireless communications.”

For its part, Federated Wireless will immediately initiate CBRS services for more than 20 customers in both urban and rural markets across 36 states.

Federated Wireless’ customers include Verizon, Charter, American Tower, Boingo, Ericsson, JMA Wireless, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Wave Wireless.

According to industry consortium the CBRS Alliance, the CBRS band is worth $15.6 billion.

“There’s been an unprecedented amount of coordination and joint development to implement the FCC’s framework, prepare the industry for imminent deployments and certify components and devices,” said Dave Wright, president of the CBRS Alliance.

“We can’t create new spectrum, but we can invent new ways to use it more efficiently," added Claude Aiken, president of the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (WISPA). "Of course, that reflects the history of the wireless industry of continually innovating to get more out of finite radio spectrum so more can use it. Today, after years of hard work and development, initial commercial deployment (ICD) of CBRS shared spectrum is a reality. We want to thank all those individuals for their magnificent efforts to make that happen. And the FCC, too, for seeing the promise within this underutilized CBRS band, and then nurturing the process to completion."

Federated Wireless, a technology company vested in the deployment of CBRS, today announced the acquisition of $51 million in Series C funding.

The Arlington, Virginia-based company had previously raised $69 million through Series B rounds. Series C investors include existing funders Allied Minds, American Tower, GIC and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. New investors included SBA Communications and Pennant Investors.

Related: Federated Wireless Files with FCC to Start Deploying CBRS in October

Federated Wireless specializes in the deployment of networks built around the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), 150 MHz of spectrum—ranging from 3550 -3700 MHz—in the 3.5 GHz band.

CBRS has been used sparingly by the U.S government and other entities, and the band was identified by the FCC as additional spectrum for shared wireless private broadband. Federated Wireless client list includes wireless operators, cable companies, tower hoisters, managed service providers (MSPs) and CBRS devices vendors, including American Tower, Arris, Charter Communications and ExteNet Systems.

“We are extremely pleased with the way Federated Wireless’ momentum in the CBRS industry has accelerated since our initial investment and are proud to have been able to contribute to it in a material way,” said Joe Pignato and Mike Turner, co-CEOs of Allied Minds, in a joint statement. “The contributions that Federated Wireless has made in bringing CBRS to this point are significant and demonstrate its leadership in the space.”

Mediacom wants to join America’s other large cable companies in testing possible commercial CBRS applications.

The New York-based cable operator has filed the requisite paperwork with the FCC, indicating plans to begin tests involving Samsung radio gear in the 3650-3700GHz frequency range.

Mediacom isn’t commending right now. Light Reading discovered the filing.

Related: CBRS-Focused Alliances Forge, er, Alliance on Key Tech Issues

Mediacom joins Comcast, Charter, Cox and Midco in looking for possible uses for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, the 3500-3700GHz frequency band set aside by the government for a narrow lists of uses, primarily military.

The U.S. government has almost finished a lengthy test of commercial use of CBRS, and the first commercial deployments are expected to begin soon.

Related: Arris IDs CBRS as an Opportunity Right Now

So far among the cable companies, Midco is the only operator to be explicit in terms of its goals for the spectrum. Midco has tested applications in the 3.5GHz range and plans to use CBRS for fixed wireless services that will expand on its existing wireline network to access hard-to-reach rural areas.

As for the other U.S. operators, they’re still being vague regarding their CBRS plans.

“There are multiple spectrum opportunities, some of which are free and some of which are licensed,” noted Tom Rutledge, chairman and CEO of Charter, during last week’s first quarter earnings call. “CBRS is what we’re experimenting in and that will be available to us at no cost, at least part of it will be. And we also continue to develop WiFi and WiFi capabilities.”

Ruckus Networks has announced the immediate availability of its CBRS portfolio, which includes CBRS-band LTE access points and varioius cloud-based services.

Ruckus, which was acquired last month when CommScope closed on its $7.4 billion acquisition of parent company Arris, has participated in nearly 50 trials of networks based on the Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) spectrum band, the 3550 - 3700 MHz-frequency swath the FCC had previously set aside for a narrow collection of government services. Ruckus is also a founding member of the CBRS Alliance.

The is FCC currently looking to finalizes commercial CBRS spectrum availability, and organizations across a wide variety of verticals will be able deploy their own private LTE networks.

Comcast and Charter Communications are among the telecom companies looking to provide CBRS network services. 

“The market needs cloud-based, easy-to-deploy CBRS solutions to enable the growing opportunities of private LTE networks in the mobile, cable and enterprise segments,” said Kyung Mun, principal analyst for Mobile Experts, delivering a statement in CommScope’s announcement today. “LTE solutions similar to Ruckus’—that are simple to deploy like Wi-Fi—will help drive rapid adoption of private LTE networks across numerous market segments. Our forecast is that nearly one million CBRS small cells will be shipped by 2023.”

Added Ian Whiting, senior VP and segment lead for Ruckus Networks: “Now that commercial availability of CBRS is a reality, we’re excited to support organizations across a variety of industries to harness the mobility, security, and quality of service that this shared spectrum provides.”

Arris-owned wireless tech company Ruckus Networks has partnered with fellow technology vendors Federated Wireless and Syniverse to set up private LTE networks using CBRS spectrum for enterprise applications.

The announcement was made today by Syniverse at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Tuesday.

The companies have established a private LTE network managed through the Syniverse Innovation Lab and powered by LTE access points (aka small cells) from Ruckus and a Federated Wireless spectrum controller. Syniverse provided an evolved packet core.

“With Syniverse’s secure network capabilities, Ruckus’ connectivity expertise, and Federated Wireless’s spectrum-sharing proficiency, we’ve launched a CBRS-based LTE network in Syniverse’s Innovation Lab,” said Michael O’Brien, group VP of corporate development and strategy for Syniverse, in a statement. “The network offers service to companies that need to take advantage of an LTE network with in-building and outdoor coverage and capacity expansion on a massive scale. The network offers an alternative to unsecured Wi-Fi connectivity that is easy to deploy and offers cost-efficient local network capabilities.”

Related: Arris’ Ruckus Partners with American Tower for CBRS Deployment at ISM Raceway

Back in September, Ruckus was given FCC certification for its entire portfolio of “OpenG”-branded access points designed to work in the 3.5 Ghz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum.

Cable and wireless operators are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz. CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses.

“A private LTE network enables secure applications, including tablets and handhelds in healthcare environments, transmission of user data in smart meters, and IoT-connected devices in remote areas. Together, we’re opening up compelling new use cases that only private LTE networks can effectively address,” said Joel Lindholm, VP of LTE business for Ruckus Networks.

The FCC is reminding anyone interested in its 3.5 GHz rule change has to get those petitions to reconsider the decision in by the end of the day Monday (Jan. 7), shutdown or no. 

The FCC said last week that the shutdown would not affect auctions for auction-related deadlines, but just wanted to put an exclamation point on that.

The FCC voted 3-1 along party lines Oct. 23 to change the rules on licenses for the 3.5 GHz (Citizens Broadband Radio Service) band to make it more attractive for providers of 5G, which includes cable ops looking to up their mobile broadband game.

NCTA-the Internet & Television Association strongly supported the FCC change, so it is unlikely to be asking for reconsideration. Public Knowledge, which backed the previous 3.5 GHZ framework, did not support it, saying the change only benefited large cable operators and wireless carriers.

The change was billed as a way to spur investment in the band and promote more efficient use, including for 5G. The main adjustments are the decision to increase the sizes of priority access licenses (PALs) from census tracts to the larger county-sized licenses, though FCC chair Ajit Pai pointed out that was a compromise from the larger partial economic area (PEA) licenses some had advocated for.

The CBRS band is a mix of PAL licenses and general authorized access (GAA) unlicensed use.

The FCC also extended the license terms from 3 to 10 years and added a presumption of renewal. All things the FCC majority said made the band more attractive to investors and bidders for the spectrum licenses in an upcoming auction.

The FCC is also making it easier to sell the PAL licenses in the secondary market. The item also includes rules to support wider bandwidth channels while maintaining interference protections, which the commission said would provide certainty and stability for broader deployments in the band by an array of users.

The CBRS Alliance and the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) have announced a partnership to address technical issues related to the commercial launch of services built around the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).

The orgs said their collaboration will focus on the technical interworking between the CBRS Alliance and ATIS solutions, including the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), Home Network Identity (HNI), Priority Services, and Radio Access Networks. The work will also address legal and regulatory compliance topics.

The two orgs have actually been collaborating for some time. In early November, for example, they jointly hosted a webinar focused on Home Network Identity. 

As part of the liaison agreement, the organizations will partner on HNI initiatives within the 3.5 GHz CBRS band. Traditionally, an HNI identifies a mobile subscriber’s home network and is assignable to mobile network operators with international roaming capabilities. Since the 3550-3700 MHz spectrum is not solely for exclusive use, some users will not directly attain FCC spectrum licenses.

Instead, users acquire base stations certified by the FCC as being compliant with the FCC rules. With such broad and low-cost access to the shared licensed spectrum, ATIS’ IMSI Oversight Council (IOC) derived a strategy for allocating blocks of IMSIs for users within the 3.5 GHz CBRS band. Within the 3.5 GHz band, a shared HNI is used to identify CBRS operations, thus conserving HNI resources, the orgs explained in their announcement.

“The CBRS Alliance values working with ATIS as one of the most respected industry associations in the telecommunications sector,” said Alan Ewing, executive director of the CBRS Alliance, in a statement. “We’re looking forward to tackling technical challenges that may be associated with delivering commercial service in the 3.5 GHz band and to maximizing cooperation between our organizations.”

In 2018, a number of large telecom companies, including Comcast, Charter and Altice, USA, openly discussed plans to build enterprise businesses based on CBRS, a narrow slice of high-band spectrum previously consigned to a few military applications.

The FCC in October finalized rules for Priority Access Licenses to the CBRS band. The FCC’s revised rules mainly covers the licensed portion of the spectrum, delineating county-sized areas and renewable 10-year terms.

Among operators and vendors, however, more interest has been shown toward the unlicensed portion of CBRS.

Over the fall, a number of vendors acquired FCC certification for CBRS products, including Arris, Ericsson, Nokia and Sercomm. 

WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has told Congress it still hasn’t determined whether its dynamic spectrum sharing model can be used to allow larger commercial carriers to share the 3.5 Gigahertz allocated for unlicensed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS).

That finding came in a report from the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology (OET). Currently on the witness stand is television’s white spaces regime, with the CBRS band the next up.

The FCC has finalized the rules and granted conditional approval to the dynamic sharing system for CBRS and is moving toward final approval and initial commercial deployments. It has also certified equipment, and has told Congress that collaboration among the stakeholders has been excellent.

Companies — most notably Amazon — and cable operators have been eyeing the CBRS band.

Dynamic sharing employs devices that can sense available spectrum and adjust their power levels to avoid interference, as well as databases for protected services that the devices can access, and advanced antennas to steer signals away from incumbents.

But there is a “but” in that dynamic spectrum future.

In a mandatory “Spectrum Pipeline” report to Congress this month on the agency’s progress in freeing up new spectrum by reallocation or sharing — a report required by the RAY BAUM’S Act FCC reauthorization bill — the agency said it and its stakeholders are “confident and excited” about the prospects of CBRS for commercial use, and dynamic sharing, but the consensus comments for that report advocate a “wait-and-see” approach.

That makes the white spaces and CBRS groups a sort of spectrum “canary in the coal mine” for dynamic sharing, and the FCC signaled it will wait and see how the canary fares.

On the white spaces side, broadcasters have registered complaints about how the all-important database identifying existing users is being managed and how effective it is at steering the unlicensed devices clear of TV station signals.

The FCC is still weighing that input and made it clear in the report that dynamic sharing in general is a work in progress.

“It is too soon to know whether other bands may be suitable for licensed or unlicensed use based on the techniques used in the 3.5 GHz band,” the agency told Congress. “The commission will continue to monitor and consider relevant developments.”

White Spaces Sharing OK’d

While the jury is still out on other bands, the FCC has already concluded such dynamic sharing can be used in the TV spectrum band, represented by the TV white spaces regime, a point the FCC made to Congress.

“[D]ynamic spectrum access techniques formed the basis for unlicensed access to spectrum in the TV white spaces,” it said. “This, in turn, was the precursor to the development of the more sophisticated sharing techniques that are manifest in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service.”

But whether “sophisticated” in concept translates to “effective” in practice remains open for cross examination.

Amazon is leading a quartet of partners, which also include Arris’ Ruckus Networks division, Federated Wireless and Athonet, in announcing a partnership to deliver a cloud-based private LTE network solution based on CBRS.

As detailed this week by technology org IEEE, this could be only the first emergence of Amazon’s expansive plans for CBRS spectrum use, with speculation that the technology giant has set up perhaps the largest testing apparatus yet to test CBRS-enabled devices and solutions. More on that further down.

The companies behind the just-announced solution are targeting developers, independent software vendors, telecom operators, the public sector and enterprises—any entity that needs quick deployment of industrial IoT applications such as real-time surveillance, smart meters and worker safety monitoring.

The quorum is billing their solution as a cheaper, more efficient way to build private mobile CBRS networks, as opposed to expensive buildups that require a lot of network hardware, as well as staff acquisition and training.

Related: Arris’ Ruckus Partners with American Tower for CBRS Deployment at ISM Raceway

The solution was announced Tuesday from AWS re:Invent, an event produced by Amazon Web Services being held in Las Vegas. Federated Wireless CEO Iyad Tarazi trumpeted the partnership via his company’s corporate blog.

The partners are using AWS re:Invent to demonstrate the solution using Amazon DeepLens devices, which Amazon is billing as the world’s first deep-learning-enabled video camera for developers.

Major components to the solution include the Ruckus Q710, which is the first CBRS 3.5 GHz indoor LTE access point to achieve FCC certification; the Athonet BubbleCloud, a mobile core designed for private mobile networks; and the Federated Wireless Spectrum Controller, which enables access to massive CBRS shared spectrum for private 4G and 5G networks.

The solution is fully integrated into AWS’ IoT cloud platform.

“This partnership represents a leap in private mobile networks by combining the leading cloud IoT platform with new wireless connectivity solutions to enable every developer to create that next transformational service,” Tarazi said.

Cable and wireless operators, along with their vendor partners, are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz, previously confined to a limited number of military applications.

CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses. The FCC is still reviewing the rules for CBRS deployment, but the CBRS Alliance expects that the General Authorized Access portion of the band will begin being used for commercial applications by the end of 2018.

Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA are each currently testing various CBRS applications. So are tech companies like Nokia.

But entry of Amazon could be a major disrupter of the telecom giants’ CBRS plans. According to IEEE, a mysterious company called Chrome Enterprises last week filed an application with the FCC to begin testing CBRS-related technology at three Silicon Valley-adjacent locations.

IEEE speculates that Amazon is actually behind this filing, and plans to use three of its facilities to conduct the test of up to 450 prototype devices.

Arris-owned Ruckus Networks said it has partnered with American Tower for what it is billing as the first commercial deployment of a private LTE network built around the CBRS spectrum.

The two tech vendors have established the network at the newly renovated ISM Raceway in Phoenix, Arizona. The the LTE network will use frequency consigned to the Citizens Broadband Radio Service, in the range of 3.5 GHz to 3.7 GHz, previously utilized on a limited basis by the U.S. Navy and a few other government entities.

Related: Arris IDs CBRS as an Opportunity Right Now

ISM Raceway, which has undergone a $178 million renovation, will utilizes Ruckus Q710 and Q910 LTE access points. Systems integrator American Tower also used Ruckus T310 tiers and T610 series outdoor 802.11ac access points in the network.

"Arris excels in providing world-class connectivity solutions to large public venues, and we are proud to add ISM Raceway to that list," said Tim O'Loughlin, president of U.S. sales and global marketing and customer operations for Arris, in a statement. "With our Ruckus products on-site, NASCAR fans will have better connectivity to upload and download content like videos, photos and apps -- or engage on social media -- allowing them to be just as fast as their favorite driver out on the race track.”

Arris, which agreed to be purchased by CommScope last week for $7.4 billion, is aggressively seeking deployment of CBRS with operators serving enterprise customers such as shipyards, airports and sports venues. Arris says it can offer their low-cost, private LTE networks that are more reliable than WiFi.

“We and other companies can deliver that to you today,” said Arris CPE division chief Charles Cheevers last month at SCTE Cable-Tec Expo.

In a huge merger among telecom industry vendors, CommScope has agreed to purchase Arris in an all-cash deal with a total purchase price of $7.4 billion, $31.75 a share.

After a widely reported series of talks, the deal was announced by CommScope this morning. Both companies have market capitalizations in the area of $5 billion.

Notably, the $7.4 billion figure, CommScore said, factors in debt financing for the purchase. The Wall Street Journal pegs the base value of the transaction, minus interest, at $4.93 billion. 

Following closure of the deal, Eddie Edwards will continue in his role as president and CEO of Hickory, N.C.-based CommScope. Arris CEO Bruce McClellan and other key Arris managers will be joining the combined company. CommScope said it will “maintain a significant presence” within Arris’ Suwanee, Georgia headquarters.

The Carlyle Group has reestablished an ownership position in CommScope through a $1 billion minority equity investment as part of CommScope’s financing of the transaction.

Related: Arris Close to $5.6B Purchase by CommScope: Report

“After a comprehensive evaluation of our business and the evolving industry we operate in, we are confident that combining with Arris is the best path forward for CommScope to grow and provide the greatest returns for shareholders,” said Edwards, in a statement. “CommScope and Arris will bring together a unique set of complementary assets and capabilities that enable end-to-end wired and wireless communications infrastructure solutions that neither company could otherwise achieve on its own. With Arris, we will access new and growing markets, and have greater technology, solutions and employee talent that will provide additional value and benefit to our customers and partners.”

Added McClelland said, “CommScope is an ideal partner for Arris. In addition to providing immediate and substantial cash value to our shareholders, we are excited for what this combination will deliver for our customers, partners and employees around the world. Today’s agreement is a testament to the strength of Arris: our leading technology, talented employees and established competitive position. With CommScope, we expect to further advance Arris’ strategy to drive innovation across our iconic brands and pioneer the standards and pathways for tomorrow’s personalized, connected always-on consumer experience. Arris will become part of an even stronger, more global industry leader, and I look forward to working with the CommScope team to achieve great results for the combined company.”

Arris paid $800 million to acquire Ruckus Wireless last year and had been diversifying its product line to match the wireless convergence of its cable operator client base. But after its $2.1 billion purchase of Pace in 2016, it remained heavily ensconced in the fading pay TV set-top box business, with 35% of its revenue coming from that sector.

CommScope, meanwhile, not only offers an escape for Arris, but a synergistic partner, with the two tech vendors selling complimentary products in emerging areas like CBRS.

BTIG Research analyst Walter Piecyk said the combined companies could realize $300-$450 million in annual cost synergies.

“Wireless operators are densifying and entering the broadband market and cable operators are likely to build wireless networks,” Piecyk wrote in a note to investors last week. “CommScope and Arris have complementary products that address these diverse sets of service providers. As an example, Arris has developed CBRS access points that will appeal to wireless and cable operators and CommScope is developing a SAS (Spectrum Access System) that enables the functionality of those access points.”

CommScope and Arris combined control approximately 15,000 patents and about $800 million in average annual research and development investments. Their combined company is expected to serve customers across more than 150 countries.

For the 12 months ended September 30, on a pro forma basis, the combined company would have generated revenues of approximately $11.3 billion with adjusted EBITDA of approximately $1.8 billion.

Arris is on the cusp of a $5.6 billion deal that would see the leading cable industry vendor sold to wireless tech company CommScope, CNBC reports.

Citing unnamed sources, the news services said a deal could be announced as soon as Wednesday. Last week, it was Reuters that reported that the two companies were in talks. Reps for both Arris or CommScope have yet to respond to MCN’s inquiries for comment.

Arris stock was up about 12% at mid-day while CommScope was down about 2%. 

With a market capitalization of just over $5 billion, Arris is involved in cable wireline broadband and has made moves to follow the cable industry’s migration into wireless, acquiring Ruckus Networks last year for $800 million.

But Suwannee, Georgia-based Arris remains heavily entrenched in the fading pay TV set-top business following its 2016 acquisition of Pace for $2.1 billion. In fact, set-tops still account for 35% of its business.

Market capped at $4.689 billion, CommScope produces complimentary products in emerging sectors like CBRS and would provide Arris with an exit strategy.

Related: Report: CommScope Talking Buyout With Arris

“Wireless operators are densifying and entering the broadband market and cable operators are likely to build wireless networks,” said BTIG Research analyst Walt Piecyk in a note to investors last week. “CommScope and Arris have complementary products that address these diverse sets of service providers. As an example, Arris has developed CBRS access points that will appeal to wireless and cable operators and CommScope is developing a SAS (Spectrum Access System) that enables the functionality of those access points.”

Piecyk said the combined companies could realize $300-$450 million in annual cost synergies.

“A combination of the two companies could broaden the target market in to regions where each company derives only a small percentage of revenue today,” he added. “CommScope generates 15% ($730 million annualized) of its revenue in APAC vs only 5% ($370 million annualized) at Arris, while in the Americas outside of the US, Arris generates 19% ($1.3 billion annualized) of revenue vs 7% ($355 million annualized) at CommScope.

Midcontinent Communications (Midco) wants to use fixed wireless to deliver broadband to remote portions of its rural footprint. And it’s currently testing residential fixed wireless speeds of 100 Mbps downstream and 20 Mbps upstreaming using its 3.65 GHZ nationwide nonexclusive and 3.5 GHz CBRS band spectrum licenses.

“Midco’s fixed wireless innovation extends to the millimeter wave, where we are beginning testing,” said Justin Forde, Midco’s senior director of government relations, testifying Friday during a hearing on 5G conducted by Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chair John Thune (R-S.D.). A transcripts of Forde’s testimony is available here.

Midco is among a number of telecom companies, Comcast and Charter included, looking at delivering services through high-band frequencies committed to the Citizens Band Radio Service. 

“Using shorter distances from towers to consumers, we can use the 70 and 80 GHz bands for our point-to-point connections and the 50 and 60 GHz bands for our point-to-multipoint connections,” Forde added. “A new meshing technology will increase redundancy and reliability, and we will be testing Gigabit fixed wireless services. Millimeter wave technology can be an additional tool in the toolbox to offer high-speed and reliable broadband to rural America.”

Related: CBRS Alliance Declares Interop a Success, Says Commercial Deployments are ‘Imminent’

Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Midco serves more than 400,000 residential and business customers count on Midco services in 342 communities in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, and Wisconsin.

Forde rendered his testimony as the FCC, which was also present at Friday’s hearings, looks to change the way it allocates spectrum for so-called “5G” services, the name which larger wireless carriers are using to market their new fixed wireless offerings.

“It would be detrimental to rural America if valuable and limited spectrum was allocated only to 5G, especially as 5G requires a high concentration of small cells to operate,” Forde said. “Using current mobile 5G technology, it would take an estimated 350 small cell towers to provide 5G to Sioux Falls, with a square footage of only 74 miles. While technology that requires end users to be in such close proximity to a tower is a possibility in Sioux Falls, Rapid City, and other urban areas, mobile 5G it is not currently a realistic solution to close the Digital Divide in rural areas.

“On behalf of our friends and neighbors who still lack access to broadband, we ask that Congress and the FCC allow fixed wireless providers like Midco to have equal access to spectrum as that valuable resource is freed up for commercial use,” Forde added. "We know from field testing that the 3.5 GHz band is key spectrum for us to provide speeds of 100/20 and higher to homes that are over 8 miles away from the tower.

The FCC is currently changing the rules for the 3.5 GHz band. Under those rules, Forde said, “After 2020, we will lose our interference protection in the 3.65 GHz band, and we will then need to either use general authorized access spectrum, in which case our operations would not be entitled to interference protection, or bid on priority access licenses in the 3550-3650 MHz range that will be auctioned. Moreover, only 70 MHz of spectrum will be auctioned, and there is no guarantee Midco will be able to gain access to that spectrum.”

The CBRS Alliance and the Wireless Innovation Forum announced this week that Ericsson, Nokia and Sercomm have joined Arris’ Ruckus Networks unit as the first technology vendors to achieve certification for new CBRS band devices.

Last month, Ruckus said that it had been given FCC certification for its entire portfolio of “OpenG”-branded access points designed to work in the 3.5 Ghz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum.

Related: Ruckus Gets CBRS Certification for Access Points

Cable and wireless operators are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz. CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses.

Having the telecom industry’s major vendors certified is a major step in the broader plan to have CBRS commercial deployments achieved by the end of the year. Earlier today, Federated Wireless said that it has asked the FCC for permission to move forward with commercial CBRS deployments as soon as October, the company announced.

“This major milestone in the commercialization of the CBRS band represents the first of what we believe will be many more certifications announced over the next few months as the industry moves towards Initial Commercial Deployment,” said Lee Pucker, CEO of the Wireless Innovation Forum, in a statement.

By the end of the year, the CBRS Alliance said it expects to have nearly a dozen labs set up around the world to conduct testing for what it has branded as its “OnGo” certification of CBRS technology.

“We see immense value in leveraging OnGo technology for private LTE and neutral host environments and are seeing growing interest across industry sectors, including public venues, smart cities, enterprises, healthcare and more,” said Chris Stark, head of North American business development at Nokia and chairman of the CBRS Alliance.

“Ruckus Networks believes this innovation band will open up compelling new use cases by enabling LTE technology to be deployed and operated in a cost effective and scalable manner,” added Mehmet Yavuz, CTO of Ruckus Networks. “As one of the first companies to achieve FCC & OnGo certification for 3.5 GHz indoor and outdoor access points, we have been seeing extraordinary results in more than 20 OnGo trials across different verticals that are ready for initial commercial deployment and range from connectivity to automation use cases.”

Ruckus Networks said today that it has been given FCC certification for its entire portfolio of “OpenG”-branded access points designed to work in the 3.5 Ghz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum.

Having one of the telecom industry’s major vendors certified is a major step in the broader plan to have CBRS commercial deployments achieved by the end of the year. Earlier today, Federated Wireless said that it has asked the FCC for permission to move forward with commercial CBRS deployments as soon as October, the company announced.

Cable and wireless operators are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz. CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses.

“This major milestone is one of the final stages before CBRS commercial deployments are made possible,” said Ian Whiting, president of Ruckus Networks, in a statement. “As a leading network provider, we are enabling organizations to deploy and manage a private LTE network, as easily as deploying a Wi-Fi network. Our OpenG LTE portfolio enables customers across a variety of different verticals to take advantage of this spectrum.”

Related: Federated Wireless Files with FCC to Start Deploying CBRS in October

Arris-owned Ruckus also announced that it has partnered with multi-family broadband provider Pavlov Media to trial CBRS 3.5 GHz LTE access points in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.

Overall, Ruckus said it has conduced more than 20 CBRS trials with operators and enterprises, and it has another 30-plus trials pending. 

Federated Wireless has asked the FCC for permission to move forward with commercial CBRS deployments as soon as October, the company announced.

In its proposal for Initial Commercial Deployment, the Arlington, Va.-based company said it has 14 initial customers—wireless operators, cable companies, tower hoisters, managed service providers (MSPs) and CBRS devices vendors, including American Tower, Arris, Charter Communications and ExteNet Systems.

Other launch stats include the inclusion of 15 OEM partners, as well as 15,753 site locations across 47 states and Washington, D.C.

Notably, the plans for commercialization outlined in the Federated proposal suggest not waiting for the debate around Priority Access Licenses (PALs) to be finalized.

Separately, Federated Wireless announced a new CPI training program.

The CPI Training Program addresses the FCC’s initial commercial deployment rules, which mandate that all outdoor CBRS devices be installed by a certified professional installer to ensure that accurate location and serial number information is logged and reported to the SAS for proper operation.

Related: CBRS Alliance Declares Interop a Success, Says Commercial Deployments are ‘Imminent’

“Shared spectrum commercialization has begun, and at a far greater scale and scope than we all anticipated at this stage,” declared Iyad Tarazi, president and CEO of Federated Wireless, in a statement. “Businesses can now access shared spectrum to not only introduce new services and create new businesses models, but solve decades old challenges, such as improving wireless connectivity indoors and outdoors, and closing the digital divide.”

Cable and wireless operators are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz. CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses.

Federated Wireless has suggested use cases spanning energy, entertainment, hotels, shopping malls, sports venues, offices, restaurants, seaports, smart cities and rural areas with more than 80 WISPs.

> Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA are each currently testing various CBRS applications.

By the end of the year, the CBRS Alliance said it expects to have nearly a dozen labs set up around the world to conduct testing for its OnGo certification of the technology.

The FCC, meanwhile, is still reviewing the rules for CBRS deployment, but the CBRS Alliance expects that the General Authorized Access portion of the band will begin being used for commercial applications by the end of 2018.

The CBRS Alliance declared its first interoperability test a success and that its branded, LTE-based technology OnGo has “imminent” opportunities for commercial applications.

“While there have been a number of recent accomplishments toward commercial deployment, the technical achievements showcased by our members at last week’s interoperability test event was by far one of the most significant milestones to date,” said Dave Wright, president of the CBRS Alliance, in a statement. “After a successful round of interoperability tests and with initial commercial deployment  on the horizon, we are confident that OnGo-enabled business opportunities are imminent.”

The interop took place last week at CableLabs’ headquarters in Louisville, Colorado and drew more than 20 Alliance member companies, including five of the nation’s Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrators: Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, and Sony. The event also featured a number of telecom industry vendors, including Arris’ Ruckus Networks division, Ericsson and Airspan.

According to the CBRS Alliance, SAS Administrators fostered more than 50 successful interactions, executing a 98% test completion rate with no recorded failures. The interactions tested the critical functions required for support of all the use cases the CBRS Alliances as identified as most relevant for spectrum sharing in the 3.4 GHz band, including mobile network densification, fixed wireless, neutral host and private LTE for both enterprise and industrial IoT use.

Cable and wireless operators are exploring opportunities for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service Device band, a 150 MHz-wide portion of largely underused spectrum existing between 3.55 GHz and 3.7 GHz. CBRS will ultimately be used for private LTE networks such as airports and industrial campuses.

Comcast, Charter Communications and Altice USA are each currently testing various CBRS applications.

By the end of the year, the CBRS Alliance said it expects to have nearly a dozen labs set up around the world to conduct testing for its OnGo certification of the technology.

The FCC, meanwhile, is still reviewing the rules for CBRS deployment, but the CBRS Alliance expects that the General Authorized Access portion of the band will begin being used for commercial applications by the end of 2018.

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Altice USA has asked the FCC to let it conduct CBRS trials in Jonesboro, Ark. beginning Sept. 1.

According to the filing, Alice would like to conduct indoor and outdoor tests using prototype small cells and equipment from vendors including Ericsson, Nokia, Airspan Networks, Arris’ Ruckus Networks and Berkeley Varitronics Systems. According to Altice’s “special temporary authority” application, the operator would like use its 3.5GHz band trials to “evaluate propagation, capacity and mobility characteristics.”

Related: Altice USA Eyes CBRS Small Cell Strategy

Alice USA, Comcast and Charter Communications are all looking at the potential of small cell networks that utilize the emerging CBRS (Citizens Band Radio Service) shared spectrum band.

In April, Altice USA issued a request for information on CBRS small cell products, along with a request for proposal on a multi-phase trial.

As reported by Multichannel News in May, Altice USA believes it is well positioned to build a small network in part to its access to low-cost sites and a workforce that could be trained to install and maintain the new small cell network.

Tied to Altice USA’s CBRS effort, the operator is building out network infrastructure for its MVNO deal with Sprint. Altice expects to launch a mobile service based on this relationship next year.

Speaking to investors two weeks ago for Altice USA’s Q2 earnings report, CEO Dexter Goei talked about the ongoing “densification of Sprint’s network,” as well as upgrades and expansion of Altice’s Wi-Fi network.

“We are also testing CBRS spectrum with equipment in a 3.5 gigahertz band as this may be good complementary capacity for us,” Goei said.

Last month, the FCC announced that it will begin on Sept. 10 accepting initial commercial deployment proposals for CBRS.

The FCC has also conditionally approved a group of Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrators, which include Google, Sony, Amdocs, CommScope and Federated Wireless.

Ian Whiting doesn’t expect to rock the boat when he officially takes the helm of Ruckus Networks on July 1.

Whiting is stepping in then as president of Arris’s Enterprise Networks unit, which includes the wireless/mobile-focused Ruckus, said he intends to move ahead with a strategy that he forged with Dan Rabinovitsj, the person he is succeeding in that role.

RELATED: Ian Whiting Tapped to Head Up Ruckus Networks

“I don’t anticipate needing to make any changes to strategy,” he said, noting that he, who has been serving as Ruckus’s chief strategy officer, worked closely with Rabinovitsj, on the integration following Arris’s acquisition of Ruckus late last year.

“I think we share the same view of where we fit into the industry,” Whiting said. “That’s the plan – to stick with it.”

He said the general focus is for Ruckus to continue to focus on its key verticals, expand on the service provider market, and broaden the international scope of its business.

RELATED: Arris Closes Ruckus Wireless Acquisition

Whiting will be taking over as the relatively new Enterprise unit of Arris is performing well in the early going.

RELATED: Ruckus Gears Up for the CBRS Band

And part of the plan going forward is to have Ruckus Networks play a more prominent role in the growing Internet of Things market, edge computing, and the opportunities ahead for CBRS (Citizens Broadband Radio Service), an emerging shared swath of spectrum that will play a big role in new private LTE networks and factor into cable’s mobile and wireless tech and service strategies.

IoT presents the nearer-term opportunity, as Ruckus has already begun to ship IoT gateway products.

The CBRS sector is in the early adopter phase as the FCC and other agencies iron out rules for the spectrum, but it’s also “building quite a head of steam,” he said.

RELATED: Cable’s Latest, Greatest Wireless Opportunity

Arris, he added, has been required to put more resources into that as it responds to demand from customers that are pushing ahead on trials and proof-on-concept deployments, including some early, paid opportunities. CBRS is also enabling Ruckus to enter new markets, Whiting said.

Whiting said Ruckus is also poised to jump on the market for 802.11ax WiFi, adding that upgrades to a new WiFi standard historically given the company a significant lift as customers deploy new access points and switching gear (in addition to Ruckus, Arris also acquired an ICX Switch business via its deal with Broadcom) to handle denser, higher-capacity networks.

Although much of the mobile and wireless discussion tends to focus on the U.S. and Western Europe, Whiting said Ruckus is also keeping tabs on opportunities in emerging markets, such as India, the Philippines, and Africa, where investments are being made in basic infrastructure.