Tuesday, September 17, 2019
Boingo To Power New Commercial Services For Citizen Broadband Radio Service
Los Angeles-based Boingo Wireless, which provides distributed antenna system (DAS), small cells and Wi-Fi services--including running its own network of Wi-Fi hotspots--says it is expanding its efforts to the new, Citizen Broadband Radio Services (CBRS). The new 3.5 Ghz radio service -- which runs at similar frequencies to new 5G wireless networking standards --was just approved by the FCC. According to Boingo, it will launch a commercial deployment of the new CBRS band, specifically to help provide connectivity in airports, stadiums, and large venues. The new bandwidth allows Boingo to provide private LTE and IoT networks, without requiring the acquisition of spectrum, which is typically very expensive and time consuming. Boingo said it already launched a private, LTE cellular network on the 3.5 Ghz band at Dallas Love Field Airport. Boingo said its new CBRS-based technology will be sold under the OnGo brand name. Despite the name, Citizen Broadband Radio Service is completely unrelated to the old Citizens Band radio bands, which are unsuitable for data and now mostly used by truckers and off roaders for short distance communications.