For Immediate Release

March 26, 2026 | Contact: [email protected]

Washington, D.C. – A new independent technical analysis released today by Valo Analytica finds that proposed increases to power limits in the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) band would cause immediate, irreversible harm to critical infrastructure — including airports, manufacturers, and rural broadband providers. According to the analysis:

• If fewer than 2% of CBRS base stations are converted to high-power, there would be a loss of over 65,000 channels and a massive loss of data throughput across the CBRS ecosystem — data loss that would slow network operation to a crawl.
• Each high-power device deployed in the band would preempt shared use across as many as thousands of square kilometers, undermining the availability of spectrum upon which 96% of existing CBRS operations rely.
• Higher-power levels will overwhelm existing operations in a manner that neither the existing technology nor current FCC rules are equipped to manage. As a result, CBRS license holders will face catastrophic service degradation on the channels they paid to secure at auction.

“The relationship between power levels and harm is not linear,” said Andrew Clegg, Chief Technology Officer, Valo Analytica. “A relatively small number of higher-power deployments creates interference and ancillary negative effects that cascade across the entire band, affecting tens of thousands of channels used by over 1,000 different operators across a vast array of use cases. A macro-cellular tower is like a megaphone in a crowded restaurant; while one person can be heard very clearly, everyone else must stop talking because the background noise becomes overwhelming.”

The analysis provides a real-world stress test and cautionary tale of exactly what high power would do in practice across the ecosystem and details these impacts at three critical existing deployments:

• Manufacturing: Interference from a nearby high-power device would disrupt robotics and real-time automation and render John Deere’s factory facility unusable, as well as slash the coverage range of its Illinois office deployment to only 4–10 meters — roughly the reach of a set of wireless earbuds.
• Airports: A single higher-power deployment would instantly cut one-third of Miami International Airport’s network capacity — with no regulatory remedy — jeopardizing security, runway safety monitoring, and public safety communications.
• Rural Broadband: Damage from high-power operations is not hypothetical. Today, cross-border high-power operations from Canada are already disrupting internet services for broadband provider Amplex’s customers in certain areas of its network. Allowing CBRS high-power operations throughout the U.S. would only compound the problem for Amplex and jeopardize network reliability for all CBRS users.

In each case, the interference from increased power levels is clear and would significantly disrupt existing operations and use of each CBRS network.

“For years, the CBRS framework launched under the first Trump Administration has been a quiet success story — airports running safer, factories running smarter, rural communities getting connected. This study gives the FCC a very clear picture of what is actually at stake as it considers these power limit questions. Billions of dollars in investment, critical safety systems, and broadband access for underserved rural communities are all on the line — and we’re confident the Commission will weigh this uniquely important evidence carefully,” said Dave Wright, Policy Director for the Spectrum for the Future Coalition. 

Spectrum for the Future commissioned and released the study in response to the FCC’s ongoing proceeding examining CBRS power limits. Spectrum for the Future’s broad membership of wireless innovators and advocates continue to call for the Commission to preserve the current framework that has enabled billions of dollars in private investment and deployment across critical sectors.

Read the full analysis: https://valoanalytica.ai/blog/f/valo-high-power-cbrs-report

View the one-pager: https://spectrumfuture.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/SFTF-Valo-Study-One-Pager.pdf

See CBRS in action: https://spectrumfuture.com/spectrum-sharing-in-action/