Citizens Broadband Radio Service

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Citizens Broadband Radio Service refers to the 3.5 GHz band (3550 MHz - 3700 MHz), opened in the United States for wireless services.

Overview

For mobile networks, CBRS can be broadcast on LTE Band 48 or 5G n48. The dedicated PLMN for CBRS-only networks is 315-010, displayed on CellMapper as 315 10.

Private networks

CBRS is also an unlicensed band, meaning it can effectively be used by anyone that has the correct equipment. This allows for easy deployment of private LTE networks.

Helium 5G

Helium 5G is purportedly a crypto "5G" network, though only has 4G LTE deployments. Their network relies on individuals deploying CBRS small cells in exchange for cryptocurrency.

A coverage map is available for Helium. This network broadcasts under the 315-010 PLMN. Note that "Helium 5G" is different from the LoRaWAN "Helium Network".

It appears that the Helium network also broadcasts 2 other PLMNs, 314-030 and 314-330.

Other networks

Mapping

It is recommended to band lock to B48 LTE to map private CBRS networks. Note that one eNB may have multiple transmit locations in completely different areas.

CBRS has been also deployed on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon's networks. Despite evidence suggesting otherwise, it appears that they have only deployed B48 as a SCC. CellMapper is unable to record Cell IDs for aggregated carriers, effectively making it impossible to map CBRS sites for these carriers. In addition, for unknown reasons, B48 trails are very sparsely mapped on these operators, despite it being widely deployed in cities. B48 has also been deployed by some regional operators, such as UScellular.