technology strategy & development consultancy

Wireless comunications imagined

"Changes occur because there’s a gap between what is and what should be."
- Craig McCaw

Innovation is imagining what should be.  Present at the analog dawn of wireless communications, we have been involved in some of the most transformational advances in wireless.  In roaming, in digitalization, to mobile broadband, to in-building and private wireless solutions.  In each of these areas we have led teams and companies in imagining new solutions and delivering those at mass scale.

Nelson Technology Partners can guide your company towards new wireless solutions which unlock business value.  We are working on future developments to transform the economic model for wireless deployment, to create new system models, to capturing the use of higher radio frequencies.

Current interest areas

Expanding mid-band 5G in-building

The mid-band, from about 3 GHz to 4.2 GHz is the sweet spot for 5G where there is enough bandwidth to enable to differentiated experience while the range of a cell is not unreasonably small. Deployment of mid-band 5G has really just begun, especially in the United States. Yet the penetration of these mid-band signals into buildings will be so limited that really the only way to get these 5G experiences indoors will be to build networks indoors. Yet the economics of in-building solutions up till now is too expensive for all but the top locations. How will this gap be closed? Through product innovation and radically different deployment and operational models.

Addressing fragmentation in mid-band spectrum in the U.S.

In the United States we have pretty abundant spectrum allocated to wireless in the mid-band. But unfortunately, it’s broken into three segments with different operating rules. Beginning at the bottom of the range we have the 3.45 to 3.55 GHz band. Then we have the Citizens Broadband Radio Service from 3.55 to 3.7 GHz. Then at the top we have the C-Band from 3.7 to 3.98 GHz. This is a lot of spectrum but how best to leverage this? What evolution of rules, radio technology, and deployment practices can help deliver true mid-band 5G to the most places the fastest?