Federated Wireless adds funding to boost CBRS, 5G private wireless services
Federated Wireless Inc., a firm providing services for wireless spectrum sharing, added to its Series C funding with another $13.7M raised from existing investors Allied Minds and Pennant Investors. The company announced a $51M round in September 2019.
The add-on funding for Federated comes on the heels of the introduction of partnerships with Amazon.com’s AWS and Microsoft Corp.’s Azure cloud services. Last month, Federated unveiled private network services that are sold and marketed like cloud services. Federated is providing “Connectivity-as-a-service” through AWS and Azure marketplaces. Customers can buy a turnkey network service that uses carrier-grade citizens’ broadband radio service (CBRS) spectrum.
Federated has created 31 CBRS networks and reportedly has orders for 50 more. The partnership with cloud providers is all about using cloud marketplaces to simplify the process of ordering and paying for service.
The additional funding is aimed at helping boost the growth of the CaaS offering but will also go towards enabling its Spectrum Controller platform to manage connectivity in the 6 GHz band.
This spectrum is currently allocated to licensed users such as carriers and MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) for services such as wireless backhaul for network traffic. The FCC is expected to allow shared operation over this spectrum, meaning both licensed and unlicensed users will have access to new Wi-Fi 6 and 5G services with up to 10 Gbps speeds.
Federated is already testing an automated frequency controller (AFC) that is a key component to the operation of wireless services using shared spectrum and is expected to be available for commercial use by the end of 2020.
Federated’s announcement comes as the interest in private wireless networking heats up. Microsoft acquired Affirmed Networks in March, giving it technology used in helping carriers build 5G networks using a software-defined networking approach. While Microsoft is partnering with carriers like AT&T to install Azure cloud services in telco facilities, Affirmed also gives the company the ability to build private 5G networks in greenfield opportunities.
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Article Topics
5G | AWS | Azure | CBRS | FCC | Federated Wireless | funding | Microsoft | shared spectrum | Wi-Fi 6 | wireless
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