Federated Wireless launched a private-wireless-in-a-box offering today (or private-wireless-as-a-service, as it prefers to call it). The company is making it available through the AWS Marketplace.
Federated is most known in the private wireless arena as one of the major CBRS spectrum access system (SAS) administrators.
But the company also helps enterprises build private wireless networks. Just last week, Federated announced a multi-year contract to work with the developer JBG Smith to deploy 5G private wireless networks in National Landing, a large area in the Washington, D.C. metro.
Its new turnkey service for 4G and 5G private wireless will include RF and network design, integrated spectrum management and network operation center (NoC) services. But Kurt Schaubach, CTO at Federated Wireless, would not specify which vendors it is working with for specific things such as core network software and RAN elements.
He said the company has “taken a very vendor neutral approach.” It has a stable of vendors that it’s working with, but it customizes the private wireless network for each customer based on their needs. He said Federated’s approach is a middle-ground between totally customizing everything from scratch or offering only a pre-packaged solution.
“We’re trying to take advantage of the massive ecosystem we have in CBRS — we count more than 100 partners we work with,” said Schaubach.
Customers will also be able to choose how much they do themselves and how much support they want from Federated and its partners.
AWS
Potential customers will order the service over the AWS Marketplace by defining their use case requirements and the location of their first deployment. Their first private wireless node is installed with their initial connected devices and applications, and the whole thing can be fully operational in as little as two weeks.
Once the private wireless network is running, customers can scale connectivity for covering larger areas, adding users, or launching new applications and devices.
Considering that AWS offers its own turnkey offering — called AWS Private 5G — it seems that AWS and Federated might now be operating as partners but also as competitors. Schaubach said, “I wouldn’t say ‘frenemies’ because the market is going to be so large. It’s more than any one company can go after.”
CBRS
As mentioned, Federated is one of the two main SAS administrators, along with Google, although there are a few other administrators, as well. Recently, Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner said the CBRS shared spectrum is not working as well as hoped. He said that it’s difficult for two General Authorized Access (GAA) unlicensed users in the same geography to share spectrum.
Schaubach said, “I wouldn’t agree with his comments.” He said the number of devices that are experiencing interference due to coexistence with other SAS administrators is 1% or less.
“I think his [Entner’s] comments don’t really accurately portray our experience or that of our customers,” he said. “We’re serving over 300 customers and well over 100,000 devices we’re managing. I think all the proof points are there.”
For its new private wireless turnkey offering Federated gives customers live-answer NoC services with 24/7 phone support to ensure service continuity.