The CBRS Alliance and the Small Cell Forum will work together to advanced Citizens Broadband Radio Service, the organizations said. The CBRS Alliance Small Cell Forum partnership will focus on the development and joint promotion of resources related to shared spectrum and OnGo small cells.
“As the industry shifts to focus on network densification, we expect that small cells will be a key driver for the adoption of 4G and 5G solutions in the 3.5 GHz band,” Alan Ewing, the Executive Director of the CBRS Alliance, said in a press release. “Together, the CBRS Alliance and Small Cell Forum offer a wealth of expertise that will raise awareness for the opportunities that shared spectrum offers small cell vendors, network operators, and others in the ecosystem.”
CBRS Alliance Small Cell Forum
The CBRS Alliance Small Cell Forum collaboration will investigate multi-operator platforms in the 3.5 GHz band, define outdoor solution architectures for densification and seek out international opportunities for Spectrum Access System-coordinated shared spectrum, the press release says.
This is not the only partnership in which the CBRS Alliance is involved. In December, the organization and The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) said that they would work together to resolve CBRS technical issues. Among the issues on the table is the use of both licensed and unlicensed CBRS in mobile scenarios.
In October, the FCC adopted rules for CBRS spectrum include both licensed and unlicensed implementations. The license period was extended from three years – the original plan – to ten years. Also in October, CBRS Alliance president Dave Wright told Telecompetitor that some commercial deployments were possible in a very short time frame.
The CBRS Alliance’s position is that LTE-based CBRS band technology using shared spectrum can enable in-building and outdoor coverage “at massive scale.”
