Google, Nokia and others forge alliance for 3.5 GHz CBRS

A half-dozen wireless heavyweights announced a partnership to boost LTE-based offerings using the shared spectrum of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band.

Qualcomm, Nokia, Intel, Google’s Access Technologies, Federated Wireless and Ruckus Wireless unveiled the CBRS Alliance, building on an earlier agreement to help develop an ecosystem centered on the CBRS airwaves. The FCC adopted rules for CBRS earlier this year, opening 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3550-3700 MHz band for commercial use. A Spectrum Access System (SAS), which is now in the process of being hammered out at the FCC with prospective coordinators, will make it possible to share spectrum where it hasn't been done before.

The companies said that the expected allocations of 3400 to 3600 MHz spectrum in several countries will bring increased demand for LTE offerings worldwide, which will create economies of scale. The new group said LTE-based solutions in the CBRS band using shared spectrum can enable both in-building and outdoor coverage and capacity expansion on a major level.

“With 80 percent of the data consumed indoors and 95 percent of the radio access network (RAN) Capex allocated to the outdoors, new solutions that produce negligible interference with legacy macro and Wi-Fi systems and are inherently designed to support multiple operators will likely play an essential role to normalize the location asymmetry between data consumption and mobile infrastructure investment,” Stefan Pongratz, senior director, carrier economics and mobile RAN market research at Dell’Oro Group, said in a press release.

For more:
- see this press release

Related articles:
Google, Intel, Nokia and more partner to advance U.S. 3.5 GHz CBRS
Google, Federated Wireless, others apply to fill role of SAS, ESC for 3.5 GHz
FCC puts final rules in place for spectrum sharing in 3.5 GHz band