With Auction Starting, Building Managers Skeptical of CBRS

“CBRS looks really interesting and has lots of potential applications, none of which are relevant today to anything we’re doing today at all,” said J.P. Flaherty, Tishman senior director-sustainability, during a panel of executives from property management companies. Flaherty said he has heard presentations from at least 10 vendors on CBRS, but only a single tenant has asked. “It is not something that is moving the needle right now,” he said: “There are very specific use cases that look very interesting, but they’re not in our buildings.” Plus, there's a lot of confusion about the rules for the band, he said.

“We’re in learning mode,” said Kent Tarrach, Brookfield Property Partners vice president-asset management: “We understand that it’s out there.” Due to COVID-19, landlords and operators recognize they need more sensors and a better understanding of their buildings, Tarrach said. Property owners know they need connections that go beyond what a distributed antenna system (DAS) offers, he said.

“I have never seen an opportunity like CBRS,” said John Gilbert, Rudin Management chief technology officer. “I have never seen a moment where the government has said to property owners and to carriers and large and small and medium-sized enterprise tenants, ‘Here is a gift.’”

The band offers “a prime chunk of mid-band spectrum” that's available only on a licensed basis in most of the world, said Dave Wright, CBRS Alliance president. “We’re going to democratize access for technologies like 4G LTE and 5G new radio, which is all the buzz today.” Facility owners can deploy their own networks “to meet your connectivity requirements without having to jump through hoops to buy spectrum at auction.” Twenty years from now, people will view CBRS “as a whole new way of managing spectrum,” he said.

“It’s a big gift that the FCC has made that building owners can take advantage of,” said Paul Reddick, Crown Castle vice president-strategy and business development.

CBRS is “very opportunistic,” said Luke Lucas, T-Mobile senior manager-national engineering business development: “The enterprise can be in control of their own future.” T-Mobile staff talk about private LTE instead of CBRS per se, he said. Lucas predicted the networks will become dominant within the next two years: “CBRS is here. It is real. It is starting to emerge.”

Rod Nelson, president of private LTE company Geoverse, noted the first wireless networks were built using much less spectrum than the 150 MHz available at 3.5 GHz through CBRS. “Now you have five times that amount that you can use in a single building, so it’s really impressive,” said Nelson, an AT&T veteran. Companies can reuse the same spectrum on private networks within a building, he said.

The launch of CBRS comes at a time of uncertainty for real estate managers. “We’re in a pandemic that just doesn’t want to seem to want to end,” said Chris Rising of Rising Realty. People are “still in a bunker” and decisions on communications are based “on triage,” not “long term,” he said: “What we’re seeing right now is people doing the best they can to adapt.” Keeping in contact with employees makes sense but “trying to have three or four Zoom meetings with your team each day doesn’t work,” he said.

The pandemic is accelerating change, said Rahul Bammi, View chief marketing officer. Videoconferencing and remote work “is here to stay,” he said: “People have talked about it for a decade but suddenly in two months everyone has figured out how to do this.”

5G “has not really yet been an issue for us as a landlord,” Flaherty said. “It’s really an outdoor play.” Many of the contacts have been from carriers seeking roof space, especially at some heights, for small cells, he said. Few tenants have 5G phones now “and we don’t see a demand right now … without actual handsets,” he said: “I see that coming for sure.” DAS networks age quickly but still work well, he said. “We’re reluctant to move off that model until there’s a model that works as well,” he said.