Boingo Wireless worked with the San Diego Padres to deploy a CBRS-based private network
The opportunity afforded through the combination of liberalized spectrum access and private network market appetite is highlighted in a trial deployment at Petco Park courtesy of Boingo Wireless. In discussing the project with the Padres and the larger private network market, CEO Mike Finley reiterated the company’s goal of building converged, agnostic, neutral networks; “The more complicated the better,” he told RCR Wireless News on the sidelines of the recent Mobile World Congress Los Angeles.
The Petco private network uses spectrum in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band which was made available by the FCC following a three-tier shared access model that prioritizes federal communications while allowing priority and general access users. Boingo has previously worked with CBRS networks at Dallas Love Field and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
“All the venues that we’re in have the opportunity to get private networks,” Finley said. “They want to be able to do certain things…[and] there’s certain bits of data that they want to know. The existing places we’re in are good places to build private networks.”
He acknowledged that the private network space is “still fairly new” but expects significant traction in the next three to five years. For private networks, “CBRS is a great piece of spectrum.”
The 5G-ready CBRS network Boingo deployed in Gallagher Square at Petco Park allows operations staff to use iPads to scan tickets or process concession transactions. It also adds bandwidth back to the public network in the area that plays host to a range of community activities.
Padres CEO Erik Greupner said the private network “can support the backbone of our operations at the ballpark [while] conserving bandwidth on the public networks for our fans. He said he’s “excited to over time expand the relationship with Boingo” and potentially build out more private network infrastructure in other parts of the ballpark.
Both Finley and Greupner referenced the role private networks could play in future sports gambling-related activities. “They have the opportunity to do a lot of different things out there and it’s a great user experience,” Finley said at MWC LA.
Boingo sees manufacturing facilities, logistics hubs, hospitals, and other large venues as potential beneficiaries of private networks. “We focus on what’s the need of that vertical,” Finley said. “They’re not all alike.” He also called out situations that would require a combination of private network, licensed cellular and Wi-Fi.
“We work on behalf of the venue regardless and there’s expertise we bring to that from experience,” he said. “We identify with them what they want and they want to deliver. And we find the most efficient way.”
