AUSTIN, Tex.–Verizon has begun testing LTE in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service spectrum at 3.5 GHz in its commercial network, with a deployment in Florida that utilized both indoor and outdoor systems.
No commercial user devices are yet available for CBRS (Verizon expects them to arrive later this year), but Verizon and test partners Ericsson, Federated Wireless and Qualcomm said that their effort “marks the beginning of commercial deployment of LTE on CBRS spectrum.”
The deployment aggregated 50 MHz of CBRS spectrum with Verizon’s licensed AWS and 700 MHz spectrum, according to the carrier. It supported peak speeds of 790 Mbps using LTE-Advanced features including 256 QAM and multiple antennas, along with the aggregation of spectrum. The test relied a Qualcomm mobile test device, Federated Wireless’ Spectrum Controller spectrum access system to allocate the channels, and indoor and outdoor equipment from Ericsson as well as a domain proxy from Ericsson to enable the radios to interact with Federated’s SAS.
Mike Haberman, VP Network Engineering for Verizon, said in a statement that the shared CBRS spectrum “is a critical component of our strategy to add capacity to our network.”
Great announcement regarding our CBRS (3.5 GHz) trials with @Verizon, @ericsson, & @FedWireless. This is another key spectrum band we are enabling to deliver faster, better mobile broadband. https://t.co/2ZEOE9yPpi via @verizon
— Dean Brenner (@deanrbrenner) May 15, 2018
Verizon also announced plans to launch 5G in Los Angeles in the fourth quarter, making L.A. its second announced market for 5G in 2018. The carrier had previously announced its intent to bring 5G to Sacramento, Calif. this year and has said that it will commercialize 5G in three to five markets in the second half of this year.
While the initial slate of Verizon 5G fixed wireless deployments will be based on the carrier’s Technical Forum standard, those sites will quickly be upgraded to the non-standalone 5G New Radio specification approved last year by 3GPP, Verizon Chief Network Officer Nicola Palmer told RCR Wireless News. (Read the full story here.)
Verizon tested 5G fixed wireless access in 11 U.S. markets, which the company said included “several hundred cell sites that cover several thousand customer locations.”
Lowell McAdam, Verizon’s chairman and CEO, said in a statement on the addition of L.A. as a 5G city that he has “never seen a technology that is as disruptive and has as much benefit to consumers as 5G.”
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