Jeff Reed, an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, is excited about the research possibilities of a new broadband bandwidth block purchased by the university.
In an effort to literally expand Virginia Tech’s research bandwidth, the Virginia Tech Foundation bought eight blocks of Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) in the Federal Communications Commission’s auction this summer.
As owner of priority access licenses (PALs) for four 10MHz blocks in Montgomery County and four blocks in Craig County, the university will likely use the spectrum to create a private 4G/LTE network and, later, a private 5G/LTE network for use on campus, according to Scott Midkiff, vice president for information technology at the university. “It’s not to make phone calls,” he explains. “It’s primarily for data.”
The FCC decided in 2015 to share the midband spectrum — widely thought to be ideal for 5G service — for commercial use, prompting the auction. Previously, the band was limited to satellite operators and federal agencies. Virginia Tech can use the spectrum for “research opportunities, things that we can do for our own operations, primarily on campus, and then opportunities for partnerships to work with local government and with commercial entities,” Midkiff says.
