Cradlepoint,
the global leader in cloud-delivered LTE and 5G Ready wireless network
edge solutions, has announced it is the first provider of
Gigabit-Class Private LTE edge router solutions, referred to as User
Equipment (UE), to achieve FCC Certification and Initial Commercial
Deployment (ICD) status. Part of Cradlepoint’s Pathway
to 5G strategy, the new Private LTE solutions are based on the
company’s NetCloud service and recently introduced Gigabit LTE edge
routers, which support Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) shared
spectrum at 3.5 GHz.
Under the ICD program, Cradlepoint will collaborate with
tried-and-tested CBRS infrastructure partners and system integrators to
provide customers with Private LTE proof-of-concept (PoC) networks. This
CBRS ecosystem includes vendors of Citizen Band Radio Service Devices
(CBSDs), also called LTE access points or LTE small cells, Enhanced
Packet Cores (EPCs) and Spectrum Access Systems (SASs) infrastructure.
The company expects candidates for the ICD program to include seaports,
airports and railways, large distribution centers, major cities and
other organizations that require an enhanced wide-area LAN environment.
Cradlepoint has been conducting Private LTE field trials since the fall
of 2017 under various experimental FCC licenses. Earlier this year, the
company joined the CBRS Alliance (www.cbrsalliance.org)
and, with today’s announcement, is the first LTE UE router solution to
be listed on its website that tracks FCC-authorized equipment for CBRS
Band 48.
“Advancements in LTE technology along the Pathway to 5G and new federal
regulations that open up under-utilized spectrum for sharing are a real
catalyst to the Private LTE market,” said Ken Hosac, vice president of
IoT strategy, Cradlepoint. “Together with our ecosystem partners and
integrators, Cradlepoint is the first to offer an Initial Customer
Deployment program to serve a growing list of customers looking to
evaluate the enhanced coverage, security and reliability of Private LTE
with CBRS to augment or replace existing wireless LAN environments.”
As connected devices continue to proliferate, Private LTE is poised to
address the emerging whitespace within today’s WAN and LAN
infrastructures—wide-area LAN connectivity. Private LTE can span greater
distances, provide better traffic management and security
characteristics, and offer more economical connection density than
today’s wireless LAN infrastructures. From a public LTE perspective,
Private LTE can provide better coverage, especially in buildings, and
delivers the security and control of a closed network along with
dedicated bandwidth. These attributes make Private LTE ideal for
reliable and secure communications for site personnel, vehicles and IoT
devices—such as video surveillance cameras—in highly-distributed and
connection-dense locations, including shipyards, airports, large
factories or industrial plants, or distribution centers.
“The market opportunity for Private LTE is rapidly emerging due to
software-defined cellular infrastructure, the availability of unlicensed
and shared spectrum, and the evolution of LTE technology on the pathway
to 5G,” said Alex Glaser, vice president at Harbor Research. “There has
been an inflection of interest from Enterprise and public sector
organizations that want to pilot Private LTE utilizing CBRS spectrum for
a number of higher bandwidth and density IoT use cases, but the missing
link has been CBRS-ready user equipment. Cradlepoint has solved this
missing link with an enhancement of its NetCloud service that includes
CBRS-capable edge routers for branch, mobile and IoT networks.”
Private LTE Solutions and Availability
Cradlepoint offers Private LTE capable solutions for both enterprise and
public sector markets. Any Cradlepoint NetCloud service plan for branch,
mobile or IoT that is paired with a Gigabit-Class LTE edge router, such
as the AER2200 or IBR1700, can support Private LTE over CBRS Band 48. To
learn more about the ICD program, visit: https://cradlepoint.com/private-lte.
About Cradlepoint
Cradlepoint is the global leader in cloud-delivered wireless edge
solutions for branch, mobile, and IoT networks. The Cradlepoint NetCloud
service, based on the Elastic Edge™ vision, delivers agile, pervasive,
and software-driven wireless WANs built on LTE and 5G services to
connect people, places and things everywhere with resiliency, security,
and control. More than 25,000 enterprise and government organizations
around the world, including 75 percent of the world’s top retailers, 50
percent of the Fortune 100, and first responder agencies in 10 of the
largest U.S. cities, rely on Cradlepoint to keep critical branches,
points of commerce, field forces, vehicles, and IoT devices always
connected and protected. Major service providers use Cradlepoint
wireless solutions as the foundation for innovative managed network
services. Founded in 2006, Cradlepoint is a privately held company
headquartered in Boise, Idaho, with a development center in Silicon
Valley and international offices in the UK and Australia.
Learn more at cradlepoint.com or follow us on Twitter @cradlepoint.
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