OnGo Alliance Meeting Highlights CBRS Momentum and 5G SA Plugfest, Addressing Industry Connectivity Needs

BEAVERTON, Ore., Nov. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- The OnGo Alliance, the industry consortium that promotes the development, commercialization, and adoption of LTE and 5G solutions for the US 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), held its biannual member meeting in the last week of October in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The three-day event brought together attendees from OnGo member companies and associated enterprises for presentations, workshops, vendor exhibits, and OnGo's first Plugfest, with devices connecting to a 5G NR Stand Alone network built on site.

 The member meeting featured over 20 presentations covering topics such as CBRS commercialization, private LTE and 5G networks, indoor neutral hosts, and OnGo market development. Notable speakers included:

• Eduardo Valencia, the CIO of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, described the airport's successful trials with CBRS on multiple use cases and emphasized the importance of video as a game-changing application for airports.
• David Hallgren & Karin Glitterstam from Einride shared their deployment leveraging CBRS private networks for Freight Mobility-as-a-Service, enabling electric freight transportation with driverless trucks.
• Johnny Park, CEO of the Wabash Heartland Innovation Network (WHIN), described the WHIN Living Lab Ecosystem project, which includes CBRS networks over a ten-county region in Indiana. WHIN is becoming a major player in agricultural & manufacturing technology.
• Garfield Swaby, VP of IT of the New York Public Library, described the library's success leveraging CBRS to deliver broadband access to the communities surrounding their branches in New York City.
• Kyung Mun, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts, gave an overview of the rising market for CBRS private networks and neutral hosts.

One key session led by both the Chairman and President of the Alliance summarized recent key OnGo Alliance accomplishments that will further enhance the reliability of CBRS:

• Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs) in areas or frequencies outside of DoD activity can now continue transmissions on approved grants for up to 24 hours without requiring renewed authorization from a Spectrum Access System (SAS).
• An approval of new CBRS propagation models that will substantially reduce the neighborhoods associated with Dynamic Protection Areas. This will significantly increase the amount of available spectrum to more users and ensure their uninterrupted operation in the band.
• The completion of a collaborative GAA coexistence framework. This innovative set of specifications and practices, designed and approved by the Alliance, serves to facilitate the reduction of interference among GAA networks. It achieves this by implementing a GAA frequency plan within an area agreed upon by users and associated SAS administrators.

"These advancements stem from the collaborative efforts of the NTIA (National Telecommunications and Information Administration), DoD (Department of Defense) and OnGo Alliance. We are pleased with the broad recognition of the importance of optimizing shared spectrum to drive innovation and efficiency," stated Preston Marshall, Chairman of the OnGo Alliance. "Improving services for end users will not only drive greater adoption but also pave the way for spectrum sharing across more bands."

This continued progress is expected to further expedite the growth of CBRS adoption across multiple verticals. There are already more than 362,000 CBSDs in active operation, accompanied by over 720 FCC-authorized end-user devices and a vast network of over 1,000 operators.

The OnGo Alliance hosted its inaugural device Plugfest at the event, dedicated to exploring CBRS 5G NR SA (Stand Alone) operation and performance. Featuring participation from over two dozen CBRS 5G devices spanning a diverse array of vendors, the event showcased the utilization of the CBRS Shared Home Network Identifier (HNI) within a private network. Using a 40 MHz carrier in GAA spectrum, consistent performance was achieved exceeding 400 Mbps in the downlink and uplink speeds surpassing 50 Mbps. The Alliance is looking to build on this success and in the near future hold additional events with more devices and vendors and showcase more advanced use cases for private networks.

The member meeting was a great success. It allowed the OnGo community to share success stories, align on priorities, share knowledge, build partnerships, and continue driving the evolution of shared spectrum technology.

About OnGo Alliance:

The OnGo Alliance is an industry consortium that promotes developing, commercializing, and adopting LTE and 5G solutions for the US 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) and evangelizes shared spectrum globally. Formerly the CBRS Alliance, this 140+ member group accelerates the buildout of effective and efficient CBRS networks using 4G and 5G solutions. There are over 362,000 CBRS Access Points across the U.S. currently broadcasting wireless signals on the CBRS spectrum via private and fixed wireless networks, spanning various sectors, including enterprise IT, industrial IoT, smart cities, rural broadband, transportation, hospitality, retail, and real estate. The Alliance has also established a product certification program for OnGo equipment in the CBRS band, ensuring multi-vendor interoperability.

To learn more about the OnGo Alliance, please visit http://www.ongoalliance.org.

OnGo Alliance and the OnGo logo are trademarks of OnGo Alliance.

SOURCE OnGo Alliance