Federated moves CBRS ESC to Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands

ARLINGTON, Va. – Federated Wireless, shared spectrum and private network pioneer, announced today that it is the first to bring its CBRS network online in Puerto Rico and the U.S Virgin Islands to deliver service to the region's Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs). With the buildout and deployment of its Environmental Sensing Capability (ESC) network, high speed broadband will now be available in hard-to-reach regions of the area, including those impacted by recent hurricanes. This new capability also will enable local carriers to enhance network performance through mid-spectrum bandwidth.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced plans in May 2021 to make the mid-band spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band (3550 to 3700 MHz) available for 5G and other advanced wireless services to an array of operations, clearing the path for commercial deployments in the band in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Federated is the first provider to extend its CBRS Spectrum Access System (SAS) operations into Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

"Federated Wireless is excited to be working closely with the area's most innovative customers who will now be able to use their PAL licenses and the lower 100Mhz of CBRS to enable new services where there is a great need for reliable, high performance Internet connectivity," said Don Hutton, Federated Wireless Senior Vice President of Sales. "The expansion of our ESC network into Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands further exemplifies our leadership in CBRS."

Federated is currently providing broadband services to multiple customers in the region, including Aeronet, a wireless broadband company serving startups, small and mid-size businesses, corporations, and ISPs in Puerto Rico.

"We selected Federated Wireless as our SAS vendor due to their wealth of experience with network building and their premier ESC network," said Gino Villarini, founder and president of Aeronet. "As a PAL winner, licensed spectrum will help us to guarantee future operations for our customers and further enable their business model in areas lacking connectivity."

The Federated Wireless ESC network is fully redundant and hardened to withstand catastrophic weather events such as hurricanes and tropical storms. This, combined with its market-leading SAS, hosted on AWS, will enable the delivery of high performance, high reliability connectivity to the Internet. The CBRS market leader, Federated Wireless was the first to launch a commercial SAS and ESC network, which have been deployed across several vertical markets with numerous use cases in the continental U.S.

Federated Wireless