Analysis · Private Networks & Neutral Host
Five questions about private networks and neutral host
The shared band at 3.5 GHz was sold as the home of the private network, and mobile and cable operators paid 86% of the money. Fewer than one radio in twenty is indoors, the one vendor that counts its customers has put the unit up for sale, and the FCC has had the rules open for two years without deciding. Read the five parts to find out:
- how CBRS is shared, who holds it and how much of it is used
- who sells, runs and buys private networks and what they run on
- what coverage inside a building costs and who pays for it
- which decisions about the shared band are open and who is asking for what
- how an enterprise should choose between Wi-Fi 7, private 5G, a neutral host and a carrier programme
Download eBookFirst edition, October 2026 · 57 pages
The parts
Part 01How CBRS is sharedWho holds the shared band, on what terms, and how much of it is used?Auction 105 sold 20,625 county licences for $4.59B gross, and five companies, Verizon, EchoStar, Charter, Comcast and Cox, paid 86.0% of it. The twenty utilities, energy producers, education bodies and Deere that also won paid 4.0%. Of the 20,185 licences still active, 17,460 expire and must show service on 12 March 2031. On NTIA’s last count there were 400,403 radios in the band, and 4.4% of them were indoors.FCC DA 20-1009 · ULS · NTIA 25-575Part 02Who builds private networksWho sells, runs and buys private cellular networks, and what do they run on?Nokia counted over 1,000 private wireless customers at the end of 2025, up from over 560 in 2022, and seven months later classified its Enterprise Campus Edge unit as discontinued operations. AWS and Microsoft retired their private 5G services in 2025. The only contract values anyone has filed belong to the utilities: Anterix holds 12 agreements with 11 of them, worth $413.1M, for 900 MHz broadband. No national carrier discloses a private-network count or a revenue line.Nokia and Ericsson 20-F · Anterix 10-K · GSAPart 03Who pays for coverage nobody ownsWhat does coverage inside a building cost, who pays for it now, and who decides whether it carries the public?At 3.625 GHz the median building entry loss is 15.8 dB for a traditional building and 30.9 dB for a thermally efficient one, and at 700 MHz the efficient building is worse still, at 31.6 dB. Crown Castle sold its small cells and fibre for $8.5B on 1 May 2026 after about $6.5B of write-downs. The owner now pays, and on CBRS only AT&T fully supports a third-party neutral host, as reported.ITU-R P.2109-2 · Crown Castle 8-K · 3GPP TS 23.501Part 04The rules that decide the shared bandWhich decisions about the shared band are open, who is asking for what, and what would change for its users?The FCC’s CBRS notice of 16 August 2024 has produced no order. Verizon asks for a 62 dBm class, 15 dB above today’s ceiling, which is the same 15 dB that separates a traditional building from a thermally efficient one at CBRS frequencies. AT&T’s plan to move users to 3.1 to 3.3 GHz runs into a statute that withholds auction authority from that band while leaving 3.55 to 3.7 GHz unprotected. At 6 GHz the FCC widened unlicensed use in January 2026.FCC 24-86 · P.L. 119-21 · FCC 26-46 · FCC 26-1Part 05What an enterprise should decideWi-Fi 7, private 5G, a neutral host or a carrier programme: which, for what, and on what evidence?Classify the building first: a thermally efficient one is 15 dB or more harder to enter, and nothing outside it can be relied on. For devices you own, use Wi-Fi 7 unless you can name a mobility, vehicle or own-channel need it does not meet. Put only that need on private 5G, with a payback that ends before the CBRS rules can change. For phones you do not own, the carriers decide: a CBRS neutral host if AT&T’s customers suffice, a licensed carrier programme you pay for if Verizon’s or T-Mobile’s matter.Parts 1 to 4 · IEEE 802.11be · Apple · FCC record
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