Verizon Wireless is moving forward with plans to deploy LTE 4G in the CBRS (Citizen Band Radio Spectrum) later this year, and smartphones will be part of the product mix reports Fierce Wireless.
Verizon is testing the performance of CBRS spectrum with a handful of partners, including Corning, Ericsson, Federated Wireless, Google, Nokia, and Qualcomm. The CBRS band constitutes 150 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum that’s historically been reserved for military use. The FCC opened it up for shared use with consumer deployments in 2016.
In a statement provided to Fierce, Verizon said:
“CBRS is a key component of Verizon’s technology strategy. As such, Verizon has strongly encouraged all OEMs to adopt CBRS support to take advantage of this technology. CBRS-capable devices will begin entering the lineup by the end of 2018 and will continue to expand aggressively through 2019.”
That lineup includes mobile devices such as smartphones. Most phones already support CBRS Band 42 (Japan and soon Europe), but will need to be updated with support for Band 48 to use CBRS in the U.S. Verizon didn’t say what devices or companies might be first to include support for LTE 4G in the CBRS band.
“The promise of the CBRS band and enabling the use of wider swaths of spectrum will make a big impact on carrying wireless data in the future. These trials are critical to stress test the full system,” said Bill Stone, VP Technology Development and Planning for Verizon, in a press release. “There are many players in the CBRS ecosystem and these successful trials ensure all the various parts perform together as an end-to-end system for our customers’ benefit. We want to ensure devices efficiently use CBRS spectrum and that the new components effectively interact with the rest of the network.”
Verizon is using its tests to assess Spectrum Access System algorithms from Google and Federated Wireless, data rates, customer experience, interoperability between infrastructure providers, mobility hand-offs, and LTE data speeds.
