Here’s what people are saying about AT&T’s CBRS relocation plan

When AT&T first floated a proposal to move Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) from 3.5 GHz down to the lower 3 GHz band, it sounded like a joke to some of the folks who work with CBRS on a daily basis. Such a move would be highly disruptive to the CBRS industry, which includes users as diverse as airports running private networks, farmers using precision agriculture and broadband providers serving rural areas. The idea of moving entire networks from the 3.5 GHz to 3.1-3.3 GHz, which is already occupied by the Department of Defense (DoD), sounds like pure nonsense. Yet it’s got people talking. What if CBRS radios could be moved to another portion of the 3 GHz band? The assumption is that the DoD will have to share some of its spectrum in the lower 3 GHz section anyway, so why not make room for CBRS, which already operates under a shared spectrum paradigm? Although the U.S. is expected to pivot to more spectrum sharing due to the lack of available unencumbered spectrum, AT&T is making a play for a bigger slice of licensed mid-band spectrum. With the second Trump administration coming into the White House and a new Republican-led Federal Communications Commission, who’s to say which way the wind will blow?