SNS Telecom & IT‘s latest research report indicates that annual investments in LTE and 5G NR-based RAN (Radio Access Network) infrastructure for Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) networks will surpass $1 billion by 2023,. This is despite the ongoing economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

After many years of regulatory, standardisation and technical implementation activities, the United States’ dynamic, three-tiered, hierarchical framework to coordinate shared use of 150 MHz of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz CBRS band has finally become a commercial reality. Although the shared spectrum arrangement is access technology neutral, the 3GPP cellular wireless ecosystem is at the forefront of CBRS adoption given the desirability of mid-band spectrum for both LTE and 5G NR network buildouts due its optimal blend of propagation characteristics and capacity.

Following authorisation of Full Commercial Deployment by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and completion of the recent PAL (Priority Access License) auction, LTE-based CBRS network deployments are beginning to gain considerable momentum, with thousands of operational cell sites throughout the United States to support use cases as diverse as mobile network densification, FWA (Fixed Wireless Access), neutral host infrastructure, and private cellular networks for enterprises and vertical industries.

In the coming years, SNS also anticipates the rollout of 5G NR network equipment operating in the CBRS band, which will lay the foundations for advanced application scenarios with more demanding performance requirements in terms of throughput, latency, reliability, availability and connection density – for example, industrial IoT applications such as connected production machinery, mobile robotics, Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) and Augmented Reality (AR)-assisted troubleshooting.

The CBRS market remains largely unfazed by the economic disruption associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, with the exception of certain enterprise and vertical submarkets. SNS Telecom & IT estimates that annual investments in LTE and 5G NR-based CBRS RAN infrastructure will account for more than $300 million by the end of 2020. Complemented by an expanding selection of CBRS-equipped end user devices, the market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 52% between 2020 and 2023 to surpass $1 billion in annual spending by 2023.

The “LTE & 5G NR-Based CBRS Networks: 2020 – 2030 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts” report presents a detailed assessment of the market for LTE and 5G NR in CBRS spectrum including the value chain, market drivers, barriers to uptake, enabling technologies, key trends, future roadmap, business models, use cases, application scenarios, standardization, regulatory landscape, case studies, ecosystem player profiles and strategies. The report also provides forecasts for LTE and 5G NR-based CBRS RAN infrastructure and terminal equipment from 2020 till 2030. The forecasts cover two air interface technologies, two cell type categories, five device form factors, seven use cases and ten vertical industries.

The report comes with an associated Excel datasheet suite covering quantitative data from all numeric forecasts presented in the report.

The report’s key findings include:

• The CBRS market remains largely unfazed by the economic disruption associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, with the exception of certain enterprise and vertical submarkets. SNS Telecom & IT estimates that annual investments in LTE and 5G NR-based CBRS RAN infrastructure will account for more than $300 million by the end of 2020.
• Complemented by an expanding selection of CBRS-equipped end user devices, the market is further expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 52% between 2020 and 2023 to surpass $1 billion in annual spending by 2023.
• LTE-based CBRS network deployments are beginning to gain considerable momentum, with thousands of operational cell sites throughout the United States to support use cases as diverse as mobile network densification, FWA, neutral host infrastructure, and private cellular networks for enterprises and vertical industries.
• We expect initial rollouts of 5G NR network equipment in the CBRS band to commence in 2021, paving the way for industrial IoT and other advanced application scenarios with demanding performance requirements in terms of throughput, latency, reliability, availability and connection density.

The report may be of value to current and future potential investors into the CBRS market, as well as LTE/5G equipment suppliers, mobile operators, MVNOs, fixed-line service providers, neutral hosts, private network operators, vertical domain specialists and other ecosystem players who wish to broaden their knowledge of the ecosystem.

For further information concerning the SNS Telecom & IT publication “LTE & 5G NR-Based CBRS Networks: 2020 – 2030 – Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies & Forecasts” please visit:
https://www.snstelecom.com/cbrs

About SNS Telecom & IT
Part of the SNS Worldwide group, SNS Telecom & IT is a global market intelligence and consulting firm with a primary focus on the telecommunications and information technology industries. Developed by in-house subject matter experts, our market intelligence and research reports provide unique insights on both established and emerging technologies. Our areas of coverage include but are not limited to wireless networks, 5G, LTE, SDN (Software Defined Networking), NFV (Network Functions Virtualization), IoT (Internet of Things), critical communications, big data, smart cities, smart homes, consumer electronics, wearable technologies, and vertical applications.