MultiTech Joins CBRS Alliance to Promote Private LTE for Resilient IIoT

According to a recent announcement, Multi-Tech Systems, a global supplier of M2M and IoT communication solutions, has joined the CBRS Alliance, a group of companies dedicated to improve usage of 3.5GHz CBRS band to deliver in-building and outdoor coverage and capacity at scale, leveraging 3GPP standards-based OnGo technology. The company also announced the development of a Private-LTE test lab in its Minneapolis headquarters and production facility to accelerate device interoperability and trials of CBRS.

As new members of the Alliance, MultiTech now plans to work more efficiently within the CBRS ecosystem to accelerate interoperability testing and trials of private LTE networks using the CBRS spectrum for the critical infrastructure needs of industrial enterprises and neutral hosts across the USA.

“We are excited that MultiTech, a well-respected industrial device manufacturer, has joined and will bring their extensive wireless knowledge and experience into the OnGo community,” said Alan Ewing, executive director, CBRS Alliance. “Industrial applications will need reliable, hardened-communication equipment they can rely on for mission critical connection to their assets.”

For many organizations, wireless has become the “fourth utility,” a resource that’s as vital as power, water and heating/cooling. As the vitality of wireless spectrum has increased, it’s become clear that data demand is limitless; yet, this crucial resource is also a very finite (and increasingly scarce) one.

“MultiTech is pleased to join the ranks of the CBRS Alliance to work alongside the ecosystem to accelerate the deployments of private cellular networks”, said Daniel Quant, VP, Strategic Development, MultiTech. “Preferred access on a priority basis to 150 MHz of mostly fallow shared spectrum across the USA will be vital in delivering resilient mission critical Industrial IoT connectivity where an enterprise needs it.” 

Band 48, also known as Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS), consists of 150 MHz of spectrum defined by 3GPP as a TDD-LTE band (3.55 – 3.7 GHz) in the USA. It is governed by a three-tiered spectrum authorization framework to protect incumbents, while freeing up precious mostly fallow mid-band spectrum across the USA for a wide variety of industrial, commercial, retail, neutral host and improved in-building and capacity applications.