UScellular had such high fixed wireless penetration in their Missouri town that they were running out of capacity and couldn't sell any more products, so they decided to work with Tarana to increase the capacity of their network. UScellular and Tarana are using CBRS GAA spectrum for the Missouri project.
U.S. Cellular plans to sell most of its spectrum and subscribers to T-Mobile, but that won't stop wireless carriers in the region from pursuing their fixed wireless access (FWA) ambitions, even if that means competing directly with T-Mobile in some areas.
In fact, UScellular is partnering with Tarana Wireless to expand FWA capacity in West Plains, Missouri, where demand for FWA is so high that the carrier has such high fixed wireless penetration that it was running out of capacity on its mobile network.
As a solution, the carrier decided to tap into CBRS General Authorized Access (GAA) spectrum and increase capacity using Tarana's technology: UScellular equipped three existing towers in the area with Tarana equipment.
Back to FWA sales
Previously, U.S. Cellular had to stop selling its fixed wireless broadband products in West Plains, but now sales representatives have resumed selling the products to more customers.
Mike Irizarry, executive vice president and CTO of UScellular, explained the evolution of the company's FWA business. He said that UScellular, like T-Mobile and Verizon, is taking advantage of unused capacity on 3GPP mobile networks.
“When we launched several years ago, we offered it in low-band spectrum,” Irizarry said. “Now we're expanding into low- and mid-band licensed spectrum.”
However, the CBRS GAA spectrum is available to anyone in areas not used by the US government (mainly the Navy), so UScellular decided to use the CBRS spectrum and work with Tarana to deploy the vendor's FWA equipment on UScellular's base stations. Tarana's technology can use both licensed and unlicensed spectrum.
Tarana has more than 200 service provider customers. Tarana CEO Basil Alwan said that initially, about 70 percent of its customers were using unlicensed spectrum and 30 percent were using licensed spectrum, but now the split is more or less even.
Capacity has also been an issue for Verizon and T-Mobile. T-Mobile has been especially vocal about not overburdening its mobile network with fixed-wireless customers. “Fixed-wireless is taking off fast,” Irizarry said. “At some point, you have to add capacity or stop selling. Once you run out of capacity, it's not economical to use legacy technology. We're excited about the Tarana product, which will allow carriers to continue selling legacy capacity after they run out.”
Tarana isn't adding capacity to 3GPP networks; it's simply using the same towers to install its system and take advantage of vacant CBRS spectrum. Alwan said Tarana's technology is “built for fixed wireless.” The company is particularly known for its proprietary interference cancellation technology.
“3GPP is a great network,” Irizarry said, “but it's trying to address very different use cases: mobility, fixed wireless, and potentially IoT. In trying to meet those requirements, you're leaving those use cases suboptimal for maximum performance.” He said Tarana's technology is optimized for fixed wireless.
“Initial performance is impressive,” Irizarry said, delivering internet speeds of up to 500Mbps download and 104Mbps upload.
“Anywhere there's a capacity shortage, we want this to be used,” Irizarry said.
Tarana's technology can work on any spectrum, 3GPP or not, but its customer premises equipment is proprietary.
Why would you do this when you're selling your business to T-Mobile?
Irizarry declined to comment on U.S. Cellular's plans to consider selling assets to T-Mobile, saying only that “T-Mobile is looking to acquire our assets, which includes approximately 30% of our spectrum. We are looking to monetize the remaining spectrum. We have not determined how we will monetize it. We operate a business and we are in competition with T-Mobile.”
To dig a little deeper, Fierce reached out to Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner and asked him why UScellular is partnering with Tarana on the FWA, given that the company wants to sell most of its assets to T-Mobile.
Entner noted that if the deal gets approved by the Department of Justice and the FCC, all of U.S. Cellular's customers and most of its employees would move to T-Mobile. All it would have left would be some spectrum and its 4,388 towers. The company would essentially become just a tower company, he said.
Entner said that for the time being, “They're still in business. Legally speaking, they have to continue operating as if the sale may not happen. If they have contracts that they had in place before the deal with T-Mobile, they have to continue them or they'll get into legal trouble. If UScellular doesn't compete with T-Mobile, that's grounds for not approving this sale. Only once it sells will T-Mobile take over and make the decision.”
As for partnering with Tarana, T-Mobile may be interested in partnering with Tarana more broadly if the company's FWA technology proves to be an effective and economical way to increase capacity. “Tarana will work really hard to make sure the technology works really well, and then T-Mobile could consider it,” Entner said.
Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to include comment from Roger Entner.
