Private wireless network provider Kajeet is injecting Samsung’s Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) radio access network (RAN) equipment into its 5G-based enterprise offering and signing up to be an authorized distributor of Samsung’s private RAN products.

Kajeet’s integration will include Samsung’s massive multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) radios that use 64 transmit and 64 receive (64T64R) antenna technology, and 4T4R 4G/5G radios. Kajeet’s component is a cloud-based device, policy, and network management tool. This includes an open API interface that allows the migration of a network to support 5G through a software upgrade.

The combo will initially target the education sector where the two companies are already working to deliver 5G private networks. It has scored past deals across that market.

Kajeet was an initial vendor partner for Google’s expansion of its Distributed Cloud Edge platform. Kajeet is offering its 5G product running on top of the Google service.

The Google platform itself was unveiled last October, targeted at allowing operators to run RAN functions and core network elements at the edge to provide enterprise customers high-speed bandwidth with private 5G and localized compute. Google more recently added privacy updates aimed at private network deployments that require specific performance and service-level agreement (SLA) standards.

The Kajeet deals comes just weeks after Samsung scored a similar agreement to provide 4G LTE and 5G-ready RAN equipment to U.S. cable service provider Mediacom Communications in a move targeted at expanding rural broadband coverage and bridging the digital divide. Mediacom plans to use the Samsung RAN equipment for fixed-wireless access (FWA) services that will tap the cable company’s CBRS spectrum holdings.

The move also continues the private 5G network narrative around CBRS spectrum.

CBRS spectrum is a swath of around 150 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band that the federal government has set aside for licensed use. An organization can gain access to some of those bands for a limited geographic area using a licensing process managed by a couple of different Spectrum Access System (SAS) programs.

This spectrum and licensing model is seen as advantageous to unlicensed spectrum used for WiFi networks in that an organization can have control over the entire spectrum band it has gained license to. However, it’s a more limited amount of total spectrum, which can limit the overall capacity of a system using that spectrum.

However, CBRS use has so far been sporadic.

Dell’Oro Group reported earlier this year that adoption was “tracking significantly below expectations” through the end of 2021.

“We have again revised the CBRS RAN projections downward to reflect the lower baseline and slower-than-expected uptake with non-FWA segments,” Dell’Oro Group VP Stefan Pongratz wrote. “This adjustment does not change the long-term vision – we continue to believe that there is an opportunity to improve spectrum utilization while at the same time stimulating innovation for both public and private networks across various industry segments. So we see this downward revision more as a calibration to reflect the current state of the market and the fact that there is still a significant gap between registered SAS APs and LTE/5G [new radio] base stations.”

Verizon is one operator that has started to push CBRS integration into its commercial 5G network. The carrier conducted a 5G data session trial with Ericsson that showed it was able to use both the shared and licensed versions of the CBRS spectrum to boost network capacity. Verizon said it plans to use that spectrum to supplement the current use of its licensed C-Band and millimeter-wave (mmWave) spectrum for its 5G network.

AT&T has been more averse to tapping CBRS.

Gordon Mansfield, VP of mobility and access architecture at AT&T, explained during an interview earlier this year that enterprises are asking for help in deploying private wireless networks. He said some of those requests are for using CBRS spectrum, however, for AT&T that path is really just an opening to a more robust private 5G network offering.

“We’ll certainly build a CBRS network, but we’re making sure that when we build that CBRS network we’ve got a path, a relatively simple path to add licensed spectrum should they hit what’s needed at a future date,” Mansfield said. “There’s a lot of value in private networks, but I think people are much better off having some level of relationship with a carrier that has licensed spectrum.”