OnGo Alliance adopts CBRS policy positions amid airport support

The OnGo Alliance has adopted formal policy positions backing CBRS stability in the 3.55 to 3.7 GHz band, as airports and major enterprise users deepen support for the shared-spectrum model. The move is meant to protect billions in investment, preserve current deployments, and shape FCC and congressional decisions on the band’s future.

Why it matters: - CBRS has become a major mid-band spectrum platform for airports, factories, ports, schools, hospitals, utilities, rural broadband networks, and public-safety users. - The OnGo Alliance says policy changes could strand billions in private investment and disrupt more than 446,000 active base stations already operating nationwide. - The debate now affects deployment stability, enterprise wireless planning, and whether shared-spectrum rules remain intact for long-term growth.

What happened: - The OnGo Alliance released formally adopted policy positions on the future of Citizens Broadband Radio Service, or CBRS. - The alliance wants CBRS to stay in the 3.55 to 3.7 GHz band, with no relocation and no sharp increase in outdoor base station power limits. - Airports Council International - North America adopted an official policy stance supporting CBRS on two points: keep the band where it is and avoid changes that hurt organizations invested in the three-tier framework. - Dallas Fort Worth International, Miami International, and Minneapolis-St. Paul International joined the OnGo Alliance as enterprise members.

The details: - CBRS opened 150 MHz of mid-band spectrum through a three-tier sharing framework. - The band now supports more than 446,000 active base stations, 1.3 million active frequency grants, and more than 1,600 certified device models. - CBRS deployments span airports, factories, ports, farms, schools, hospitals, stadiums, utilities, public-safety operations, military bases, tribal lands, and rural broadband networks. - Norman Fekrat, OnGo Alliance chairman and CEO of Imagine Wireless, said moving the band, adding auction uncertainty, or giving it to a few high-power operators would strand investment and punish users that built CBRS into a success. - The alliance opposes any relocation of the band because it says relocation would dismantle an ecosystem of more than 1,600 certified device models and erase economic value already created. - The alliance says continued uncertainty delays deployment, hurts GDP, and leaves U.S. industry at a global disadvantage. - The alliance supports exploring pathways for indoor and outdoor drone operations in CBRS, but wants a framework that preserves current interference protections. - The alliance opposes raising outdoor CBRS base station power limits by 32 to 320 times current levels. - The alliance says low-power small-cell rules let a manufacturing plant, a rural ISP, an airport, and a hospital share spectrum without interfering with one another. - The alliance warns that even limited high-power conversions could consume capacity across the band and affect operations at Miami International Airport, manufacturing plants, and rural providers. - The alliance opposes weakening out-of-band and in-band emissions limits, saying those limits are essential to coexistence and device performance. - The alliance says its Collaborative GAA Coexistence framework, built on Wireless Innovation Forum specifications and SAS-mediated coordination, is already reducing interference between neighboring GAA networks. - The alliance wants the FCC to back industry-developed coexistence measures and make good-faith collaboration a required part of the CBRS framework. - ACI-NA says airports need the full 150 MHz across their jurisdiction for safety, security, and private wireless networks.

Between the lines: - The alliance is trying to lock in a policy outcome before uncertainty slows more enterprise deployments. - Airport support strengthens the argument that CBRS is no longer just a telecom issue; it is infrastructure that many vertical industries now depend on. - The focus on low power, emissions limits, and coexistence shows the alliance is defending the original CBRS sharing model rather than treating the band like traditional cellular spectrum.

What's next: - The OnGo Alliance plans to work with the FCC, the administration, Congress, and other stakeholders on rules that protect existing CBRS deployments. - The alliance also plans to keep pushing for a workable drone framework that fits within current interference protections. - The outcome of future FCC and federal policy decisions will help determine whether CBRS keeps its current structure or faces changes that affect investment and deployment momentum.

The bottom line: - The OnGo Alliance wants Washington to preserve CBRS as a shared, low-power spectrum model and leave the band where it is so existing users can keep building on it.