Announcing CBRS 2.0

Access to the public airwaves is an increasingly contested and critical input to everything as the world goes wireless. Spectrum auction legislation and the FCC’s expired auction authority remain stalled in large part because of a debate over the extent to which Federal frequency bands—particularly military spectrum—can be consolidated or cleared for more traditional auctions of very high-power licenses to the three big mobile carriers.

In the meantime, advances in dynamic sharing between commercial users and the U.S. Navy in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) is illuminating a different path forward. CBRS is a novel, world-leading framework for three-tier spectrum sharing that combines lower-power licenses (auctioned by county) and unlicensed-type access, both coordinated by geolocation databases and coastal sensor networks that protect incumbent U.S. Navy radar operations from interference.

In just four years, more than 1,000 CBRS operators have deployed nearly 400,000 broadband access points nationwide. A very diverse range of local users—from factory complexes and rural internet providers, to airports, utilities, sporting arenas, ports, schools and libraries—are expanding use of the band.

However, because very conservative rules were adopted to minimize the risk of interference to Naval radar, much of the potential capacity remains untapped. Until now.

A discussion on how the NTIA, Defense Department, and FCC have collaborated with industry stakeholders to lay the groundwork for CBRS 2.0 and how this technical evolution and collaboration points the way to the potential intensive sharing of far more Federal spectrum going forward.

Keynote Remarks: 
Sarah Morris, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Administrator (acting), NTIA, U.S. Department of Commerce

Keri Pasquini-Thompson, Deputy Director, Spectrum Policy and Innovation, Department of Defense CIO

Jonathan Campbell, Wireless Legal Advisor, Office of Chairwoman Rosenworcel, Federal Communication Commission

Industry Keynoter: 
Preston Marshall, Chairman, OnGo Alliance and Director of Wireless Standards and Policy, Google

Industry Panel Discussion: 
Johnathan Lewis, Innovation Division Director, Dade County/Miami International Airport

Manish Jindal, Group Vice President, Wireless R&D, Charter Communications

Michael Calabrese, Director, Wireless Future, Open Technology Institute at New America (Moderator)

More speakers to be announced!