Monday, March 27, 2017

Spectrum Sharing Changes Business Model for FirstNet

Spectrum sharing arguably is one reason AT&T chose to participate in the process of winning the FirstNet first responder communications network, which has not in the past been seen as commercially interesting. Indeed, some 16 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the twin towers in New York, there still is no single communications network for first responders. 

One new carrot, though, is spectrum sharing. Though FirstNet members have first call on the use of the 20 MHz of communications spectrum (in the D block of the 700-MHz range), AT&T also is able to use the spectrum for commercial purposes and consumer services.

That presumably changes the value equation enough that AT&T now feels it can build and operate the network, where in the past neither it nor the other leading mobile service providers were interested. 

Many now believe the same change in business case will be possible as spectrum sharing becomes a more-common practice in other communications bands, such as the 3.5-GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) and 5-GHz Wi-Fi bands. 


source: Qualcomm 

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