AT&T to Begin Testing 5G-Ready CBRS Equipment
Selects Samsung for CBRS Equipment and CommScope as SAS Provider, Will Use CBRS for Fixed Wireless Internet Deployments
AT&T* today announced that it has selected Samsung Electronics America and CommScope to supply the company with its first 5G-ready Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) network solution. Samsung will provide CBRS compliant radios and base station equipment. CommScope was selected as the Spectrum Access System (SAS) provider.
CBRS is an innovative spectrum band which allows both licensed and shared access that helps enable efficient use of finite spectrum resources. We plan to start testing CBRS equipment in our labs early next year and plan to rollout commercial CBRS technology in U.S. cities beginning in late 2019.
As part of the rollout, we will start by using LTE in CBRS Spectrum and then migrate to 5G. We will primarily use the CBRS solution to deliver home and enterprise broadband services. Millions of U.S. households lack access to broadband service, and in many cases a fixed wireless access (FWA) architecture can cost-effectively reach homes and businesses where fiber cannot.
“When we looked at CBRS spectrum, we saw a promising opportunity to use this spectrum band to expand our fixed wireless access network to additional cities across the U.S as well as other opportunities for future use cases,” said Gordon Mansfield, vice president Converged Access and Device Technology. “With 5G on the horizon, we look forward to testing and deploying CBRS equipment to give our customers the best network experience possible.”
“We are excited to build upon our relationship with AT&T with this commercial agreement to bring our newest 5G-ready CBRS solution to their network,” said Wilf Norrlinger, vice president, Networks Division, Samsung Electronics America. “Samsung is a big believer in using LTE-based technologies and 5G innovation to expand broadband availability across the U.S., and we look forward to playing a central role in accelerating this evolution.”
“CommScope has been working on CBRS since day one, helping develop industry standards and policies to further market success in addition to developing our SAS and environmental sensor solutions,” said Ben Cardwell, senior vice president, CommScope Mobility Solutions. “We are thrilled to be working closely with AT&T to help them realize their plans for CBRS and ensure the quality of their SAS services nationwide.”
