Enterprise, Municipal Deployment Plans Unaffected by Carriers’ C-Band 5G Pause

AT&T and Verizon recently announced a pause in the rollout of 5G services involving their newly purchased C-band spectrum, as reported by CNET and other media outlets. The carriers said their decision is a response to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) special information bulletin advising the aviation community of potential interference involving radar altimeters in airborne aircraft and the C-band spectrum. The band under scrutiny is between 3.7 and 3.98 GHz.

While the carriers indicated the pause will only be for a month, Terry Chevalier at Sunstone Associates details in an article, "Spectrum: An Inconvenient Truth” , in his newsletter, three reasons why the delay may be longer.

Enterprises and municipalities deploying and considering their own private cellular networks may wonder if this issue affects their plans. Here’s the good news – it does not. Most private cellular networks in use and under consideration today are being deployed in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. The frequency range is similar, but CBRS involves a distinctly different set of frequencies. The CBRS band has already been thoroughly vetted and approved for use in the United States.

Additionally, while the CBRS band is a common deployment spectrum, it is not the only spectrum available for private cellular networks. Municipalities, tribal authorities, and some enterprises already own or lease spectrum ranging from 400 MHz all the way up to 2.5 GHz. As long as equipment is available to support deployment, any of these bands can be used to deploy a private cellular network.

Enterprises and municipalities are embracing private cellular to cover unserved and underserved campuses and neighborhoods wirelessly, and to improve physical and network security, enable automated solutions, and reinforce the reliability and resiliency of their networks while maintaining direct control of their information and spending. The increasing availability of applications, devices, and integration partners is accelerating adoption. Using the already available frequency bands means there’s no need to slow deployment plans.

If you’d like an analysis to determine if your organization can benefit from private cellular, contact Geoverse or a Geoverse partner today.