Google has asked the Federal Communications Commission for authorization to conduct radio experiments in the new Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band, at 24 U.S. locations.
That is important for several reasons. First, the CBRS is the first U.S. frequency band to feature shared spectrum access: commercial users and licensed government users will share access to bandwidth.
Second, CBRS will be a major new way for Google--and other ISPs--to provide Internet access services, beyond Google Fiber.
Third, the move suggests the coming important role of fixed wireless in the U.S. ISP business.
Google plans to deploy initially in Atwater, Calif., Mountain View, Calif., Palo Alto, Calif., San Bruno, Calif., San Francisco, San Jose, Calif., Boulder, Colo., Kansas City, Kan., Omaha, Neb., Raleigh, N.C., Provo, Utah, and Reston, Va.
Those locations skew heavily to major urban areas near Google’s headquarters, some sites where Google Fiber already operates, but also some new smaller-market locations.
The initial test locations also indicate Google wants to test interference issues in areas where licensed users are active (coastal regions are issue for some licensees).
Google apparently also is looking at locations where it already operates Google Fiber, potentially adding a new access technology option to the current fiber-to-home approach.
Google says “operations vary from 7 km to 40 km from the geographic center point of each test area.” That implies potential testing of signal propagation and interference testing ranging from four miles to nearly 25 miles.
The test locations are not commercial launch sites, Google says.
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