WifiForward’s Response to CTIA’s CBRS Study

Posted on

The study released today by CTIA and Recon Analysis about CBRS uses cherry-picked data and overlooks robust success across many different industries.

First, to clarify timing: the FCC first issued CBRS licenses just over 18 months ago, and was still granting CBRS licenses last month. CBRS usage and deployments are moving far faster than any of the traditional cellular providers’ deployments. As of May of this year, more than 228,000 CBRS devices had been deployed, connecting everything from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to the John Deere facility in Illinois. Importantly, this model has also enabled smaller players, such as schools, libraries and health systems, to connect students and healthcare workers to essential connectivity. 

Spectrum is a finite resource with many stakeholders vying for more in our wireless world. While CTIA had been critical of CBRS since before the FCC devised its sharing framework, the future must include spectrum-sharing models such as that in CBRS that carefully balance government, industry and consumer interests while optimizing the efficient use of spectrum. Spectrum doesn’t grow on trees and an exclusive licensed-only model, which CTIA seems to prefer, simply will not work for our wireless future.