CBRS: GAA or PAL… or Both!

You are at home thinking; what will I do differently when I go back?  How can I plan for it now? How can I get ahead?  …   Well here is a suggestion if you are in the USA:

Go secure some CBRS GAA spectrum for your business operations.

-For my USA based wireless deployment friends. –

-Safety moment-

First, I hope you and your families are all are well and taking social distancing and safety seriously.  We all have a serious role to play in fighting COVID-19, and it starts with precaution and mitigation.

As we are all in isolation

You are at home thinking; what will I do differently when I go back?  How can I plan for it now? How can I get ahead?  Well, here is a suggestion if you are in the USA…  Secure some CBRS GAA spectrum for your business operations.

NOW and for very little money, while there is much CBRS spectrum to be taken – Secure as many GAA grants as you can capture, while there are few requests made, and then you can decide if you also want to bid on PAL later.

GAA         (General Availability Access)

Tower/Azimuth-based spectrum grant

• For less than $200/year, you can get a 10MHz or even a 20MHz channel for a given tower towards a specific azimuth (a GAA Grant).  So, from a given tower, you can easily have 4 Azimuth (say 0-90-180-270), and it would cost you less than $700/year to secure four times 10-20 MHz; totalizing 40-80 Mhz.  (amazing!)
• If you have four strategic towers with each 4-azimuth granted, you have guaranteed between 160-320 MHz of spectrum. (that is just amazing!)
• The frequency planning and reuse are done automatically by the SAS. You do not have to worry about it, and it is not like the wild west you are experiencing in the 5.8 GHz (CBRS has a traffic cop call the SAS)
• NOW is a “spectrum land grab, “and the grants you receive are yours to keep for years, or until you decide not to use the spectrum anymore.  (Amazing!)

PAL          (Priority Access Licence)

County-wide based grant

• Once you have GAA’s if you want a county-wide insurance policy
• You bid on a single 10Mhz channel for the county.
  • IF you win at the auction:
    • You have a 10Mhz channel to yourself, and you can reuse that channel at will, within the county. (An excellent insurance policy)
    • It is yours, but it is only 10MHz
    • If you do not use the spectrum, you temporarily lose it, and it becomes available as GAA, until you use it.  If you never use it, you have lost your money.
    • You keep your GAA grants as you likely will never have too much spectrum, and you can use the GAA channels for data-intensive applications.
  • If you lose at the auction:
    • You will be thrilled you raced to secure some GAA grants!
    • You will likely try to secure more GAA now
    • We can also help you obtain another spectrum, but it will not be as easy and GAA.

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What are your thoughts?

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Acknowledgments

This piece is the result of countless meetings and discussions with customers, co-workers, and other industry friends, who all share a passion for the wireless technologies and solutions that are at the foundation of the digital transformation of Industry.