Expanded service in California will serve rural and underserved communities in eleven counties, including Monterey, San Benito and the north-eastern Sierras

SAN MATEO, CA, UNITED STATES, October 29, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Etheric Networks, the leading provider of wireless internet service in the Bay Area, today announced it has secured spectrum through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) auction for licenses in the shared Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band. These licenses are in the counties of Alpine, Colusa, Inyo, Lassen, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Plumas, San Benito, Siskiyou & Trinity.

Alexander Hagen, CEO, Etheric Networks, said: “The significance of the 2020 CBRS auction cannot be understated. It is one of the first spectrum auctions to allow bids at a county level, instead of an entire metropolitan area. This change opens the door for smaller operators to add licensed spectrum that is tailored to their coverage areas.”

The CBRS spectrum is used in fixed wireless applications. Fixed wireless delivers high-speed, reliable and secure broadband with speeds up to 250 Mbps. Initiatives that will roll out from Etheric’s successful bids include:
– Expanding Etheric’s southern network border along its existing dark fiber backbone.
This will allow Etheric to provide San Benito and Monterey counties with 9/11- grade voice service over high-speed fixed wireless. The company expects to see several hundred megabits capacity per user, with a download and upload goal of 100 megabits.
– Partnering with local ISPs in remote mountainous rural regions.
Etheric has also obtained spectrum licenses in the remote counties of Alpine, Inyo, Mono, Plumas, Lassen, Modoc, Siskiyou, Trinity, and Colusa. It would like to partner with existing or help establish new local ISPs in those regions, with the goal of keeping at least 80% of the income in the community.
– More efficient use of network bandwidth.
Networks built on unlicensed spectrum must diligently coordinate and manage frequencies in order to insulate customers from varying spectrum quality. This often means budgeting extra bandwidth to maintain guaranteed service levels. With CBRS licensed spectrum all devices are registered and calibrated so they don’t interfere with each other.

Access to the CBRS band will change the fixed wireless industry in several ways. Small internet service providers can now offer roaming services to cellular operators, and potentially trade permissions for priority license use with each other. It’s also likely that co-ops will form amongst CBRS license holders to address the back end for cellular roaming data.

Additional benefits of using CBRS spectrum:
– The 3.5 GHz band will be open to anyone
The FCC will make CBRS commercially available to pretty much everyone, not just large mobile operators. This means non-traditional mobile operators will likely bring new products to market for home and business broadband.
– Better indoor and outdoor cellular signal
A private LTE network on the CBRS band could effectively be used in place of or in conjunction with Wi-Fi. It can also address existing cellular coverage gaps in large or spread out facilities such as commercial office parks, skyscrapers, manufacturing plants, hotels and hospitals.
– Greater network security
Wi-Fi is widely considered a non-secure, or easily hackable, platform. CBRS systems will have restricted access based on SIM cards and have configurable network topologies, so IT can use best practices in cybersecurity design.

Etheric Networks Announces New High Speed Wireless Internet Base Station in Hollister

Expanded service in San Benito County addresses the rising demand for reliable home connections and dedicated community networks

SAN MATEO, Calif. – August 20, 2020 – Etheric Networks, the leading provider of wireless internet service in the Bay Area, today announced that its newest tower is now servicing the city of Hollister as well as much of San Benito County. This expansion brings significant new internet options to thousands more businesses and residences and strengthens Etheric’s ability to support robust private community networks.

The Covid 19 pandemic has forced businesses, schools and social groups to work, learn and build community online. Many of these changes could be permanent, making access to reliable internet an even more critical part of our infrastructure. Today’s news furthers Etheric’s goal of reaching 90 percent of Bay Area households and businesses with 99.999% reliability to meet this need.

• Fixed wireless goes where DSL and cable can’t – Fixed wireless delivers internet via radio waves transmitted from a tower to an antenna located on the exterior of a home or business. Because the receiver and the transmitter require a clear line of sight in order to communicate, every installation requires a survey to confirm service availability. 
• Energy independence for reliable uptime – Etheric’s Hollister tower is entirely independent of the power grid, with solar-powered systems backed up by natural gas generators that ensure internet service is not interrupted by PG&E power outages. 
• Fixed wireless meets new demands for private community networks – Interest in private communication hubs to provide needed bandwidth to those working and learning from home has increased significantly in recent months. Etheric’s dedicated fiber backbone and one-hop peering connections to all major Bay Area data centers allows the company to rapidly deploy community-wide solutions that can offer significant savings for members.

Bryan Swanson, Director, City of Hollister Development Services, said: “COVID 19 has heightened the need for reliable internet access to serve San Benito County residents and businesses. Fixed wireless from Etheric Networks is a welcome solution that will not only serve the existing community, but also attract more opportunities to our region.” 

Alexander Hagen, CEO, Etheric Networks, said: “These are extraordinary times, as households and organizations struggle to obtain reliable broadband access for working and learning from home. We are seeing an incredible demand, and our investment in new infrastructure could not have come at a better time. Etheric was founded to bring customers together, and we are dedicated to continuing this legacy as we explore new ways to provide powerful services to our community while touching the land lightly.”