CommScope announced plans to initially demonstrate fixed wireless access, private LTE and IoT use cases in multiple markets following the official notification from the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) that its spectrum access system (SAS) to support the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) has been certified for initial commercial deployment.
With the FCC public notification, organizations across a wide variety of verticals will be able to put 150 megahertz of spectrum to use for a host of applications, including fixed wireless access, small cell deployments and in-building and private LTE networks, Commscope said in a release.
“With the public notice from the FCC, companies can finally enter initial commercial deployment and begin to realize the value that private LTE can bring to their buildings, campuses, employees, customers and business,” said Iain Gillott, president and founder of iGR. “CommScope is demonstrating its commitment to bringing CBRS to life with a full solution consisting of CBRS access points, SAS and ESC. The industry needs an end-to-end solution to give organizations the ability to quickly, and confidently, deploy LTE-based wireless solutions.”
In a public notice posted on September 16, the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Office of Engineering and Technology confirmed that the SAS operated by Amdocs, CommScope, Federated Wireless, Google, and Sony have satisfied the lab testing requirements and are approved to support initial commercial deployments (ICDs). Those systems have also received final approval for ICD from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and the Department of Defense.
ICD is a formal 30-day period in which the new systems will receive extra scrutiny that they are living up to the operational results they produced in the lab, and the SAS administrators must provide a report on ICD operations at the end of the period. ICDs “must involve a variety of testing scenarios featuring multiple Citizen Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs) that result in the generation of data upon which the Commission can reasonably predict that the SAS can reliably operate in compliance with the … rules,” the FCC noted.
Meanwhile, in the run-up to ICD, the Federal Communications Commission has been granting a slew of requests that range from expanding existing pilot networks to showcasing the technology at this fall’s Mobile World Congress Los Angeles.
“This is an exciting time for CBRS,” said Ben Cardwell, senior vice president of Mobility Solutions, CommScope. “After years of collaboration with industry and government on CBRS, CommScope is pleased to enter the last phase of SAS certification and is prepared to move to full commercial service offering a complete portfolio of CBRS solutions for use cases and business opportunities.”
With the addition of Ruckus Networks’ CBRS-band LTE access points and cloud services into CommScope’s portfolio, enterprises now have access to secure, cost-effective LTE coverage as well as support for Industrial IoT connectivity. CommScope completed the acquisition of Ruckus last year.