Opensignal: US operators paid more than $80 billion for C-band licenses

U.S. operators have spent more than $80 billion on C-band licenses to improve the 5G experience for users. To understand why operators are spending so much on this new spectrum capacity, OpenSignal analyzed the experience with CBRS and other similar types of spectrum already in use.

The survey compared average 4G download speeds for the three major U.S. mobile operators (AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon) with and without mid-band spectrum such as CBRS (3.5 GHz, Band 48).

Verizon's use of the spectrum significantly improved 4G download speeds in urban areas, with and without CBRS. On connections with CBRS, users experienced 4G download speeds that were 78.8% faster than those without CBRS, at 74.4 Mbps.

That's faster than what AT&T and T-Mobile achieved on mid-urban spectrum (47.3 and 61.6 Mbps, respectively).

Interestingly, Verizon users were connected to CBRS in more cities in October 2021 than 12 months ago. In October 2021, Opensignal analysis showed that CBRS bands were used on 4G devices in 36.3% of metropolitan areas (MSAs) in the United States, up from 24.8% in October 2020.

While CBRS and other mid-band spectrum can help increase speeds, high-band spectrum tends to have less coverage than low-band spectrum for reasons of physics.

Power levels correlate to the speeds users experience on each band. CBRS band users experienced an average download speed of 136.7 Mbps near a base station, but speeds dropped significantly farther away from the base station.