CBRS Alliance, Small Cell Forum team up to drive small cell adoption in 3.5 GHz band

The CBRS Alliance and Small Cell Forum recently announced a partnership to further advance use of the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum band. The organization will work together on numerous initiatives related to the wide-scale adoption of small cells, network densification, as well as the development, commercialization and adoption of OnGo™ certified solutions for the 3.5 GHz band, CBRS Alliance said in a release.

Under the partnership agreement, the organizations will work together on the development and joint promotion of resources as they relate to shared spectrum and OnGo small cells to accelerate deployment. Some examples of the organizations’ collaboration include investigating multi-operator solutions in the 3.5 GHz band, defining indoor solution architectures for densification and exploring international opportunity for Spectrum Access System (SAS)-coordinated shared spectrum.
“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, Executive Director of the CBRS Alliance said in a statement. “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.”
The Small Cell Forum has recently forecasted that unlicensed and shared spectrum could account for up to 36 percent of small cell deployments by 2022. In the meantime, the CBRS Alliance is working with government and industry entities to facilitate testing and certification of OnGo small cells. So far, numerous vendors have demonstrated prototypes and conducted live trials of these small cells. At the same time, the Small Cell Forum has played a key role in defining how small cells will act in shared spectrum. The union between the Small Cell Forum and CBRS Alliance will allow both organizations to be closely aligned on technical specification requirements and testing results for Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSD’s) indoor and neutral host use cases.

“The combination of small cells and shared spectrum will have a disruptive effect on the mobile market, both in the United States and other regions around the world,” Small Cell Forum COO Richard Kennedy said in a statement. “We’re excited to partner with the CBRS Alliance to continue to promote the value and potential of small cells in the 3.5 GHz band.”