The growth being seen by C Spire over the last year or so continues as the telecommunications company is expanding its 5G offerings throughout Madison County and Rankin County. Eight cities in central Mississippi will receive 5G deployment from the nation’s sixth-largest mobile provider. Recently, C Spire began delivering service to 33 sites through various cities including Brandon, Canton, Florence, Madison, Pearl, Pelahatchie, Richland, and Ridgeland. A total of 155 sites have been launched since late 2020 which includes Brookhaven in Lincoln County, Columbus in Lowndes County, and certain markets located in Hattiesburg, a city that is found in Forrest County.
“We’re rapidly bringing consumers the benefits of new 5G wireless network technology where they need it the most with fast speeds, better service, and an improved experience. Using a backbone of fiber optic infrastructure, we’re rolling out a better 5G network now and for the future,” said the GM of C Spire’s wireless division, Brian Caraway in a statement.
C Spire is first deploying 1900 MHz, 700 MHz, and 600 MHz bands, but the company hailing from Ridgeland, Mississippi also has mmWave spectrum (28 GHz band). The wireless provider also purchased additional licenses at the C-band auction after spending over $49 million for eight spectrum licenses. Capital investment is important for any enterprise and C Spire is no different. To provide its 5G network to more subscribers, C Spire is planning to invest $1 billion over the next three years to deploy 5G and fiber Gigabit Internet throughout its markets.
Several network enhancements are coming from C Spire which includes Band 41 (2.5 GHz) carriers with carrier aggregation and additional cell site antenna capacity boasting useful features such as multi-layer MIMO and 256 QAM modulation which improves spectral efficiency. In 2020, C Spire chose Nokia to be its main vendor for its network. The wireless provider is also looking to Open RAN architecture to improve its 5G network offerings. While Open RAN isn’t being implemented yet, we may not have to wait much longer to see it come into the mix. C Spire is looking to test and possibly launch its own standalone (SA) 5G network in 2021.
Underserved markets can be an issue for both consumers and service providers. On one hand, urban areas are customer dense and make sense to build in as companies can recoup money from their investment. On the other, rural markets are still in need of high-speed connections. C Spire is looking to cover the digital divide and continues to find its place in a market that needs true 5G speeds.
Source: Fierce Wireless