Successful test with Ericsson paves the way for Verizon to expand its CBRS use from LTE to 5G
Verizon on Tuesday announced that it’s adding 5G service running over Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. Verizon, together with Ericsson, announced that it’s completed a 5G data session using CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum. Verizon said it will support 5G on both shared spectrum and Priority Access License (PAL) CBRS spectrum, an area of heavy Verizon investment in 2021.
“With this successful trial and CBRS licenses in markets across the nation, Verizon is positioned to expand its 5G network to this new spectrum in parallel with its ongoing 5G deployment on C-band,” it said.
Verizon has spent more than any American operator to bolster its midband spectrum holdings, the biggest spender both the U.S. government’s record-setting C-band spectrum auction and in the CBRS Priority Access License (PAL) auction. Verizon put nearly $1.9 billion on 557 PALs in 157 counties, buying pricey licenses in places like Los Angeles County, CA where the cost of a single PAL was $52 million; but also in other small-to-mid-sized markets around the country, typically buying at least three PALs in the counties where it did buy. CBRS has been a project for Verizon since its inception, and the carrier has wasted no time in lighting up CBRS sites.
And Verizon has been putting CBRS spectrum to good use for its LTE network. A 2021 analysis from Opensignal suggested that Verizon saw an up to 80% increase in LTE network speed averages after deploying CBRS.
There’s no announced timetable for Verizon to flip the 5G switch for CBRS. But if past is prologue, Verizon won’t waste time. Mobile network performance specialist Rootmetrics took a close look at Verizon’s GAA CBRS usage in 2020 and saw a marked uptick as Verizon sought to improve capacity in metro areas during the height of the pandemic.
Rootmetrics tested 125 cities in the second half of 2020, and observed CBRS spectrum in use on Verizon’s network in 70 metropolitan areas, up from 41 cities in the first half of 2020. Rootmetrics also noted that Verizon has been using GAA since well before the PALs auction. The company recorded Verizon using GAA CBRS in eight of the 55 markets that it tested before it had to pause its first-half 2020 testing due to the pandemic. After Memorial Day, its testing teams saw Verizon using GAA in 33 out of 70 cities tested.
CBRS spectrum provides some flexibility for Verizon’s needs, according to Bill Stone, Verizon’s VP of technology development and planning.
“There is certainly interest in using it for multiple use cases, so we’re also planning to use CBRS as part of our strategy to in-building deployments, and that fits into our longer-term plans as well with private networks and on-site networks,” he said.
Kelly Hill contributed information for this report.
