Federated Wireless CCO: ‘Enterprises want to buy private wireless as a subscription, as something they can scale’
Federated Wireless has announced a new private wireless-as-a-service offering that enables enterprises to deploy a turnkey private cellular network using CBRS spectrum. According to Chris Swan, chief customer officer at Federated Wireless, enterprise customers don’t want to buy a single network component; they need somebody to manage the whole “litany of things.”
“We found the market requires a whole solution,” Swan told Enterprise IoT Inisghts. “[Enterprises] want to buy private wireless… as a subscription, they want to buy it in a way that they can consume it, expand and scale it.”
He added that many businesses want “to start small” when it comes to a private network, using it for only one or two applications, but over time, they may want to add other applications onto the network such as digital twins or connected cameras and sensors. “This is all stuff we’re enabling,” he said.
The private wireless-as-a-service offers a 3-step model — order, onboard and scale — for enterprises to get started with 4G and 5G connectivity and promises to get the network up and running in only two weeks. The ordering step takes place on Federated Wireless’ “cloudified” marketplace. Here, enterprise decision makers define the requirements of their use case and the location of their first deployment. Then, the first private wireless node is installed and onboarded with their initial connected devices and applications. Customers then have an RF and network design plan in place that can scale to cover larger areas with additional users, applications and devices.
Swan further explained that because the solution is built on shared spectrum, enterprises can expect faster and more affordable deployments, as well as improved security and performance because data never has to leave the property or cross a public network. Despite these benefits, however, CBRS spectrum — precisely because it is shared spectrum — runs the risk of interference from other users. That is why Federate Wireless says it is dedicated to helping it customers find “good, clean spectrum.”
“We are going in and helping customers achieve that interference-free deployment even when somebody drops another CBRS radio in,” said Swan. “Our business is CBRS; this is the foundation of what our business is built on.”
Partnership with JBG Smith
Just prior to the announcement of the private wireless-as-a-service offering Federated Wireless offering revealed a new partnership with mixed-use property developer JBG Smith to deploy 5G private wireless in National Landing, which is a small area in northern Virginia comprised of three neighborhoods and is home to Amazon H2Q. JBG Smith is Federated’s first commercially announced private wireless-as-a-service customer.
Using licensed CBRS spectrum that JBG Smith acquired in 2020 that covers all of Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, the pair will create an interoperable 5G private network showcase in National Landing to support areas like IoT, AI, advanced robotics, AR/VR and edge and cloud computing.
As part of the strategic partnership Federated Wireless will relocate its corporate headquarters to National Landing, occupying approximately 36,000 square feet of office space. “This is a big deal,” Swan said. “We are physically moving our headquarters here and we are setting up shop. We are going to have the center of our universe there.”
