A pair of industry groups on Tuesday announced a solution to help deploy 3.5 GHz spectrum commercially in stadiums, malls, apartment complexes and other large venues.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and the CBRS Alliance developed a new IMSI code — a 15-digit international identifier for network roaming — to be allocated to operators on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service band.
Officials called the announcement an important milestone on the road to commercial development of the band, and noted that the ability to provide cost-effective LTE service in public venues — regardless of mobile carrier — is one of its most promising potential use cases.
ATIS’ IMSI Oversight Council, under ISMI administrator iconectiv, will also govern an IMSI Block Number to support network services in CBRS spectrum — a vital step for both LTE and IoT systems.
“This joint decision ensures that the availability of IMSIs meets the innovative needs of the wireless industry through a user-friendly process for shared spectrum deployments,” CBRS Alliance Chairman Chris Stark said in a statement.