Study Warns That High-Power CBRS Devices Could Devastate Private Wireless Ecosystem
New report backed by real-world data from over 430,000 CBSDs concludes that proposed Category C and D power levels pose an existential risk to the shared spectrum model.
A newly published report by Valo Analytica, a company that delivers data products and services related to all aspects of radio spectrum acquisition, optimization, mapping, and research, has raised serious concerns about proposals to introduce significantly higher-power devices into the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band, warning that such a move could fundamentally undermine the shared spectrum framework that has underpinned the growth of private LTE and 5G deployments across multiple industry sectors in the United States.
The report, titled "Negative Impacts of Higher-Power Operation on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service," was supported by Key Bridge Wireless LLC, a Spectrum Access System (SAS) administrator, which contributed real deployment data drawn from more than 430,000 Citizens Broadband Radio Service Devices (CBSDs). The dataset provides one of the most comprehensive empirical bases yet assembled for evaluating the potential consequences of changes to CBRS power rules.
Jesse Caulfield, Chief Executive Officer of Key Bridge Wireless, described the central finding as "sobering." The report concludes that the introduction of proposed Category C and Category D devices — which would operate at power levels 32 times and 320 times the current permitted limits respectively — would cause severe interference across the band and could effectively destroy the diverse ecosystem that CBRS has fostered since its commercial launch.
"Even a small number of high-power CBSDs would cause massive issues," Caulfield stated. "The CBRS shared spectrum ecosystem was not designed to handle interference from 15 kilowatt devices — radios so powerful it is dangerous to stand within ten feet of them."
The Valo Analytica report highlights that high-power operation would disrupt established deployment models for private wireless networks across a range of sectors, including manufacturing, airports, utility operators, educational institutions, and rural broadband providers. Of particular concern is the impact on the General Authorised Access (GAA) and Priority Access Licence (PAL) coexistence model — the "use-or-share" framework that has been central to CBRS's appeal to enterprise and non-carrier users.
Should the coexistence model collapse under the interference burden of high-power devices, CBRS would risk being repositioned as a conventional macro-cellular band, eroding the very characteristics that have distinguished it as an innovation platform. Caulfield noted that the timing of any such regulatory change would be particularly damaging, given that private LTE networks are only now reaching meaningful scale for non-carrier organisations.
"Just as private LTE networks are finally taking flight for non-carrier users, this change would strand investments and render billions of dollars in deployed infrastructure obsolete," he warned.
Key Bridge Wireless and supporters of the CBRS ecosystem are urging stakeholders to engage with the regulatory process ahead of any Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decision. Interested parties may access the full Valo Analytica report, engage with the Spectrum for the Future initiative, or file comments directly with the FCC in Proceeding 17-258.
