Private Network Users, WISPs Form New Pro-CBRS Group

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2025 – A group of private network users, wireless broadband providers, and their equipment vendors is urging federal spectrum managers not to sell part of a shared band they depend on.

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service, which sits in the 3.55-3.7 GigaHertz (GHz) band, is used by companies for private networks and by wireless broadband providers in rural areas.

Users and proponents of the band were worried about the band being sold off when Congress told the agency in July to sell off 300 megahertz of non-federal spectrum, while at the same time killing a carve-out that would have blocked a sale of the band.

“We urge you to preserve this proven model and reject efforts to change what has made CBRS a cornerstone of American 5G innovation,” the companies wrote in a Sunday letter to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and National Telecommunications and Information Administration Administrator Arielle Roth. “Disrupting this thriving ecosystem would undermine the Trump Administration’s America-First strategy to restore U.S. manufacturing, expand domestic 5G leadership, and connect rural America.”

The companies, which are calling their organization the American-Made 5G Coalition, include Abside Networks, Cambium Networks, Federated Wireless, JMA, Keysight Technologies, Nextlink, Tarana, Skylark, plus the 5G-OT Alliance, which includes companies like John Deere and British Petroleum.

Spectrum users of unlicensed Wi-Fi nervous

Users of other spectrum, the unlicensed 6 GHz band used for Wi-Fi, were also nervous after the July budget legislation was passed. Trump administration officials, including Roth, have since said they support leaving 6 GHz as is, but they haven’t been as explicit about CBRS.

It’s not clear the FCC would actually move to relocate users and sell off part of the band, something experts have noted would be time-consuming and difficult, but proponents have been consistent in pushing the FCC not to alter CBRS.

Republicans from both chambers of Congress have weighed in in support of CBRS, and trade groups representing wireless ISPs and the cable industry have consistently urged the FCC not to disrupt the band as it looks to auction airwaves.

“That spectrum should not come from CBRS,” Louis Peraertz, WISPA’s VP of policy, wrote in a letter to the agency last month. “It may seem attractive to cleave the upper 50 megahertz of spectrum, which is only used for General Authorized Access (“GAA”), from CBRS, but that also would be extremely destructive to existing users.” 

CBRS uses a tiered licensing system, with free-to-use general access licenses at the bottom and paid priority licenses holders being protected from interference. Both categories can be kicked offline by coastal Navy radars.

There’s also a dispute over whether the FCC should increase power limits in the band. Major mobile carriers tend to prefer this, as it would make the spectrum more similar to the full-power, exclusive licenses they use. CBRS users like WISPA have opposed the idea, saying they would be unable to operate with the extra interference.