Sound Broadband: Spectrum Holder LICT Makes Big FWA Moves

LICT is best known as a rural broadband consolidator, but several months ago the company quietly added Sound Broadband to its holdings, not through an acquisition, but organically. In collaboration with Sound Broadband, LICT looks to enable its subsidiaries to expand wirelessly. LICT has quietly amassed 177 wireless licenses in various bands, including AWS, PCS, 2.5 GHz, CBRS, 3.45-3.55 GHz, C-band and millimeter wave (24 GHz and 28 GHz bands). Some of the licenses are in areas where LICT has a subsidiary. Recently Sound Broadband and LICT subsidiary Western New Mexico Communications (WNMC) tested a deployment that achieved speeds close to 1 Gbps using fixed wireless access (FWA) equipment based on 5G technology from Ericsson. In October, Sound Broadband will work with a LICT subsidiary in California and Oregon on FWA launches. Other LICT subsidiaries will get FWA “in 2024 and beyond,” said Sound Broadband President, Dylan Larmore.