Airwavz Solutions, a provider of in-building wireless infrastructure, and Globalstar announced that they have agreed upon rights to offer Band 53 for in-building wireless services.
Under the agreement, Airwavz received rights to lease Globalstar’s Band 53, while Globalstar will seek to further develop the spectrum and supporting ecosystem for in-building services and for mission critical applications.
“Band 53 is well suited to meet future in-building wireless connectivity demands. Airwavz is exploring use cases such as mission-critical IoT applications and smart building connectivity as well as private LTE for building owners and enterprise clients within commercial real estate (CRE),” Mark Horinko, president of Airwavz, told In-Building Tech.
“The potential to offer our commercial real estate clients robust wireless services, based on both licensed Band 53 and quasi-licensed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is driving us to innovate and breakthrough current business models and technological barriers. Until now, this option really did not exist,” the executive added.
With favorable propagation characteristics including low interference, high capacity and nationwide availability, Band 53 is ideal to support next generation in-building services as the commercial real estate industry undergoes a technological transformation, the company said.
“With FCC authorization, 3GPP approval of Band 53 and the growing support of the ecosystem, Globalstar is primed to offer terrestrial spectrum to enable high capacity indoor and outdoor applications,” said Jay Monroe, executive chairman of Globalstar. “We are working closely with Airwavz to deliver the next wave of innovative wireless services.”
“Licensed spectrum will enable Airwavz to provide Service Level (SLA) supported wireless services. CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) can provide payload, whereas licensed spectrum can provide SLAs. We’re exploring both for mission critical connectivity for IoT and smart building solutions and private LTE services for building owners and tenants/enterprise,” Horinko said.
Airwavz Solutions and Globalstar will begin pilot programs in the commercial real estate sector in the third quarter of 2019.
“We are exploring multiple trials at multiple venues with various ecosystem partners. We expect each pilot program to last 60 – 90 days. Once we move through the pilot programs, we’ll have a better understanding of the technology and interest from the CRE community on various use cases,” Horinko added.
Airwavz Solutions is a telecommunications infrastructure company serving both the commercial real estate industry and the major wireless carriers by providing in-building wireless solutions. Airwavz designs, installs, owns and operates wireless infrastructure inside commercial office and hospitality buildings in dense metropolitan areas.