Private network pioneer Federated Wireless today announced that it has secured $13.7 million in additional Series C funding from existing investors Allied Minds (LSE: ALM) and Pennant Investors. This funding will accelerate expansion and adoption of the company’s partnership with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to offer Connectivity-as-a-Service, announced in February. It will also provide a new path to 1,000 MHz of spectrum for private wireless networks by expansion into the 6 GHz band for 5G services.
“Over the last three decades, control and management of scarce spectrum assets has been the driver of hundreds of billions of dollars in market capitalization for wireless carriers in the US,” said Tim McDonald of Pennant Investors. “Federated Wireless is the clear market leader in delivering spectrum as-a-service, turning what had previously been a high fixed cost asset – spectrum licenses – into a variable, price-per-connection service. This is a game changer in wireless, enabling not only wireless carriers and cable companies, but also cloud service providers such as AWS and Microsoft, to offer valuable connectivity services over shared spectrum resources.”
What is Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS)?
The Federated Wireless private wireless offering Connectivity-as-a-Service (Caas) enables enterprises to order the business connectivity services they need, with a single click from AWS or Azure, with Federated Wireless delivering and managing the network. A broad range of solutions and partners enables choice with proven reliability. It offers cloud scalability with comprehensive visibility into network performance and usage that allows IT management to set granular network policies while maintaining secure control of networks and data. It does so at a low cost with the high-performance and reliability of 4G/5G technology delivered at enterprise Wi-Fi costs.
Why 6 GHz?
Building on its leadership in managing 150 MHz of CBRS shared spectrum, the Federated Wireless CaaS offering will expand to provide a path to 1,000 MHz of shared spectrum, taking advantage of both Wi-Fi 6 and 5G in the 6 GHz band to enable data transfers of up to 10 Gbps. The FCC is expected to finalize the rules for 6 GHz shared operation later this month, with a number of countries in the European Union and in Asia expected to follow suit by 2022.
“The rapid adoption and general enthusiasm that we have seen since FCC approval for commercial deployment of CBRS is even greater than we anticipated, and is driving both Federated Wireless and the wireless industry as a whole to new heights,” said Iyad Tarazi, President and CEO of Federated Wireless. “Our newest developments, CaaS and extending the Spectrum Controller to 6 GHz, have greatly expanded our footprint and our opportunities, and I would like to thank our investors for continuing to support us as we continue to grow.”
About Federated Wireless
Founded in 2012, Federated Wireless has long led the industry in development of shared spectrum CBRS capabilities. The company’s partner ecosystem includes more than 40 device manufacturers and edge partners, all of which are dedicated to collaboration to advance development and proliferation of CBRS services. Federated Wireless’ customer base includes companies spanning the telecommunications, energy, hospitality, education, retail, office space, municipal and residential verticals, with use cases ranging from network densification and mobile offload to Private LTE and Industrial IoT. For more information, visit: www.federatedwireless.com.
