Verizon is revving up its use of Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. The operator announced Tuesday that, along with Ericsson, it completed a 5G data session using CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum.
The GAA spectrum is the unlicensed portion of the CBRS band that is available for pretty much anyone to use. Verizon also bought Priority Access License (PAL) CBRS spectrum in the 2020 auction, so it’s got both in the mix.
Verizon said this trial with Ericsson indicates that Verizon and its vendors are ready to support 5G on both shared and PAL CBRS spectrum. Previously, much of the deployment with CBRS has been for LTE as opposed to 5G.
The CBRS spectrum will be used to supplement Verizon’s current deployment of 5G using the C-band and millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum that supports its “5G Ultra Wideband” service. Verizon’s “Nationwide 5G” runs on its lower-band spectrum.
“The use of GAA and PAL licensed CBRS spectrum for 5G service further strengthens our already robust spectrum portfolio and will lead to an even better customer experience when using Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband,” said Kyle Malady, EVP and President, Global Networks and Technology, in a press release. “Verizon leads the industry with the strongest spectrum portfolio across low, mid and high band spectrum. Our strong spectrum position is a result of multi-year strategic planning and investment.”
Of course, T-Mobile has a completely different opinion about that “spectrum position,” arguing that Verizon’s has been overly centered on mmWave. But all three of the big nationwide carriers are using low, mid- and high band spectrum as part of their 5G offerings.
Verizon noted that historically, it has used shared and licensed CBRS spectrum to supplement its low and mid-band deployment of 4G LTE service and private network offerings.
“With this successful trial and CBRS licenses in markets across the nation, Verizon is positioned to expand its 5G network to this new spectrum in parallel with its ongoing 5G deployment on C-band,” the company stated. “This expansion will support Verizon’s core areas of growth and innovation across mobility, nationwide broadband, mobile edge compute and business solutions, the value market and network monetization.”
While much of the world uses 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G, the U.S. set it up a bit differently with the CBRS band.
In the U.S., the CBRS band is made up of 150 MHz of 3.5 GHz shared spectrum, and there’s a multi-tiered sharing scheme in place, where Tier 1 incumbents get protected status. That includes Department of Defense (DoD) Navy ship radars and registered fixed satellite (receive only) stations
Tier 2 is for the PAL holders, while Tier 3 is for GAA channels.