Looking at Industry Access to the CBRS PAL Spectrum in Spektrum Metrics' Web Spectrum Viewer May 9, 2023 18:00

Recently I supported a colleague with some analysis of the CBRS PAL licenses for an OnGo conference.  With his permission I am providing a few of the interesting outtakes from our analysis.  All of this analysis is based on Spektrum Metrics current (April 2023) spectrum data which includes all of the transactions that have occurred since the CBRS auction.  To start the analysis, I categorized each of the 245 PAL licensees in our spectrum database into industry categories representing their business focus and their plans for spectrum utilization.  The chart below represents the percentage of PAL licenses controlled by each industry as measured in MHz-POPs.

CBRS Priority Licenses - Industry Breakdown:

The second factor I analyzed was forecasting how the spectrum would be used between mobile usage or fixed wireless.  I assumed that the Cable, National, Regional and Rural industries would utilize CBRS for mobile networks while the remaining industries would focus on fixed wireless.  Again, the percentages represented in the chart below are based upon the MHz-POPs forecasted for mobile and the MHz-POPs forecasted for fixed wireless.

CBRS Priority Licenses - Anticipated Use:

My last analysis was focused on the Utility industry, which includes oil, power, water and manufacturing.  Our focus on this sector was to determine where the utility sector spectrum was controlled an how much spectrum is controlled.  This is an easy output from the Web Spectrum Viewer - Mapping module.  Only the CBRS spectrum is counted in the maps below.

Columbia Energy:

Chevron U.S.A.:


Federated Rural Electric Association:


Hawaiian Electric Company:


Illinois Electric Cooperative:


Deere & Company:


Alabama Power Company and Southern Linc:


Muscatine Power and Water:


Oxy USA:


Pioneer Natural Resources:

Ravalli County Electric Cooperative:


Southern California Edison Company:


San Diego Gas and Electric Company:

Tampa Electric Company: