Telecom & Technology Consulting
Remember when you first experienced wireless Internet? If you’re like me, there was a certain feeling of, well, magic. No wires, no chords, yet with your laptop you could read the news while catching up on email – at your desk, on the couch, at the café. Anywhere, really. It was all so liberating. Except for the inconsistent connectivity.
Fast forward to 2021 and those nagging wireless issues seem so far in the past. Yet the truth is, many companies still deal with poor and inconsistent indoor wireless connectivity. Customers in retail shops complain. Employees within the walls of organizations get frustrated. And when trying to get things right, IT departments must either depend on mobile operators, or figure out a way to boost the quality on their own Wi-Fi networks.
Those fearless IT departments can now resolve their wireless issues with something called shared spectrum. Here’s the back story: In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission approved the use of shared spectrum through Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS). This is a wireless technology that provides the benefits of traditional wireless and Wi-Fi, but at a lower cost and with better quality.
There are other benefits of CBRS. For one, now enterprises can take advantage of advanced options like private 5G networks. Those same enterprises can develop and deploy communications networks with high-speed private LTE and 5G solutions. And they can do so with the cost and simplicity of Wi-Fi, along with the reliability and security of a private network.
CBRS also lends helpful a wireless hand to mobile network operators, cable operators and managed-service providers. Specifically, they can deploy CBRS in smaller geographical areas, especially rural areas that require additional spectrum, and which traditionally face connectivity challenges. In addition, recently available cloud-native shared spectrum solutions allow for the use of open spectrum to deploy economic and scalable private 4G and 5G solutions.
Indeed, there are many benefits for deploying shared spectrum as a way to solve the wireless Internet connectivity coverage dilemma.
For starters, you’re able to expand coverage and capacity. CBRS provides commercial use of 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band through a Spectrum Controller, adding much-needed capacity to meet the ever-increasing demand for high-speed wireless services. Plus, because deployments are based on standardized 4G/5G, shared spectrum solutions do not suffer from interference issues, making them ideal for mission-critical applications.
With CBRS, you can meet the need for high-speed Internet for a number of common scenarios. For example, airports can deploy CBRS for a private wireless network, while major metropolitan areas can use smart-city sharing solutions for developing leading-edge IT applications. Large retail complexes and shopping malls can use CBRS to foster deeper connections with consumers while improving the shopping experience.
But no matter the use case, more and more leading wireless vendors are developing technology to support CBRS. These include Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and many other companies who offer out-of-the-box, integrated private wireless solutions.
Those vendors aren’t gambling with new products in order to cash in on a new market trend. Rather, they’re meeting the increasing and real demand from global clients who require reliable, high-performance connectivity. Without question, every enterprise today relies on secure connectivity as part of their digitization and automation efforts – CBRS can provide that as a standard part of a business connectivity strategy.
Overall, shared spectrum allows organizations to efficiently deploy private 4G and 5G solutions. And since they can control these solutions, they’re able to ultimately improve their networks and cultivate new sources of revenue. Someday soon, the days of unreliable enterprise networks will be a distant memory.
