Google Exiting CBRS Spectrum Management
Also, pro-CBRS groups released a report highlighting deployments in the band.
WASHINGTON, June 12, 2026 — Google is retiring its spectrum access system for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service.
The company stopped taking new customers Wednesday and will fully shutter the service on June 10, 2027, according to its website.
CBRS uses a tired licensing system in which Naval radars get protection from priority license holders, and both of those users get protection from general access users who operate in the band for free.
Spectrum access systems (SAS) coordinate among those users to mitigate interference. Google was one of six companies authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to operate an SAS.
“We continuously evaluate our product portfolio to ensure we are delivering the most impactful solutions for our customers. As part of this regular review, we have made the decision to wind down our Spectrum Access System (SAS) offering,” a Google Cloud spokesperson said in an email.
“We remain deeply committed to the telecommunications industry and our telco customers and partners globally,” the spokesperson continued. “Our immediate focus is on working closely with affected customers to ensure a smooth transition, and help them migrate to alternative providers that best support their business goals.”
The company’s website points users to a list of other SAS operators to which they could migrate, like Federated Wireless, Nokia, Sony, and Red Technologies.
Although it helped stand up the CBRS framework and the OnGo Alliance, a pro-CBRS industry group, Google isn’t a major player in the SAS space today. Federated wireless has much of the market.
The company reported handling 75 percent of all CBRS devices (CBSDs) in September 2025, and Fierce Network reported this week that the share has since jumped to 83 percent.
Michael Calabrese, director of New America’s Wireless Future Program, worked closely with Google in proposing the CBRS framework back in 2012. He said the company was successful in pushing the industry toward spectrum sharing, even if it wasn’t making money operating a SAS.
“I’m quite sure Google knew from the start that operating a SAS would not be very profitable, especially if there were multiple SAS operators competing, as there have been,” he said in an email. “To their credit, Google committed itself to shaping both the technology and the standards for the world's first truly dynamic spectrum-sharing initiative – and they succeeded.”
He noted the company developed the first prototype SAS and coordinated with federal agencies and companies to develop implementation standards.
“As the world moves step by step to more intensive and dynamic spectrum sharing, we’ll recognize that their pioneering role in CBRS was really quite visionary,” he wrote.
Iyad Tarazi, Federated’s CEO, made an effort to entice Google users onto the company’s platform Wednesday.
“If you’re currently operating on Google’s SAS, now is the time to begin planning your transition strategy well ahead of the June 2027 deadline. Our team is ready to assess your deployment and build a seamless migration plan,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Pro-CBRS report
On Thursday, the OnGo Alliance and other pro-CBRS groups released a report they commissioned aimed at showing CBRS is not underutilized.
The major mobile carriers are not fans of CBRS, preferring the high-power, exclusive licenses their networks are built for. They argue the airwaves, prime spectrum for mobile networks, is underutilized under the current scheme.
There has been consistent worry in the last year among CBRS users and proponents that the FCC would seek to sell off part of the band or allow higher power levels, both of which they would like to avoid.
The report, also commissioned by Spectrum for the Future, American-Made 5G, WISPA, and the 5G-OT Alliance, found there were currently more than 442,000 CBSD deployed in the U.S.
The report also found 75 percent of the 1,580 private 5G networks in the country use CBRS, and projects the share to grow over time as more private networks are built.
Users and proponents say the band is essential for rural broadband and for private networks used by manufacturers like John Deere and BMW. The report included several case studies of companies, airports, and school districts that were using the band.
It also cast CBRS as providing additional competition in the mobile space. The cable giants provide wireless service and offload much of their traffic to Wi-Fi, and to a smaller extent CBRS.
“Spectrum for the Future and coalition members continue to call on policymakers to preserve the current CBRS framework that has enabled billions in private investment and deployment across critical sectors,” the group said in a release.
