Many Have Hopes Pinned on CBRS Auction: Start Date July 23

A lot of hopes are riding on the auction of spectrum in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band, which has a start date of July 23. The spectrum is considered mid-band – and industry stakeholders increasingly see mid-band spectrum offering the optimum mixture of bandwidth and coverage for 5G deployments. Perhaps no one has higher hopes for the auction than Verizon, which is light on mid-band spectrum holdings. But other bidders that have a lot at stake include incumbent telecommunication companies such as Windstream and Frontier that are expected to use any winnings to support fixed wireless service at speeds comparable to fiber broadband but with lower deployment costs. Those companies have been struggling to compete with cable companies, whose infrastructure can more easily support high speeds, and gaining CBRS spectrum to support high-speed fixed wireless could be the telcos’ most effective competitive response.

Rural stakeholders also have big hopes pinned on the CBRS auction. Licenses will be for 10 MHz of spectrum by county, and the small geographic area was intended to encourage small companies that focus exclusively or primarily on rural fixed wireless to bid. Fixed wireless equipment for the CBRS band is expected to offer superior performance and better economics in comparison with many of today’s options.