Ligado Networks, a satellite communications provider to customers across North America, and Ubiik, a global provider of private LTE solutions for mission-critical customers, announced today the release of the new goRAN™ LTE Base Station designed to leverage Band 54 spectrum at 1670-1675 MHz.

The Band 54 goRAN™ LTE Base Station will be particularly useful for utilities deploying private networks which is why the companies plan to showcase a demonstration version of the device during the 2023 Utility Broadband Alliance (UBBA) Summit & Plugfest Event in Minneapolis next week from October 10-12, 2023.

Ligado Networks Chief Technology Officer, Sachin Chhibber, emphasized how the announcement represents another building block in the expansion of the ecosystem which utilizes Band 54 frequencies. “Band 54 is 3GPP-standardized spectrum available contiguously across the U.S., Ubiik’s goRAN™ base station is a significant enhancement to the opportunities the band affords to the critical infrastructure industry – especially utility and other enterprise organizations planning deployment of private networks.”

Ubiik CEO, Tienhaw (TH) Peng, echoed those sentiments, underscoring why implementation of LTE technology within the 1670-1675 MHz block of spectrum is well-suited for the critical infrastructure industry. “Given the scarcity of spectrum, being able to secure an optimal 5 MHz slice in which to build out a private network is a golden opportunity for our critical infrastructure customers. Our goRAN™ Base Station offers the perfect mix of affordability and ease of deployment combined with the spectral efficiency, interoperability and security brought by LTE technology,” says Peng. “Together, with Ligado, we look forward to providing a solution-in-a-box for building an LTE network – by either utilizing a user’s specified core network or one directly built into the base station.”

Chhibber reiterated how specific attributes of Band 54 – particularly its Time Division Duplex (TDD) capabilities – equip utility users with significant flexibility, as different ratios of uplink versus downlink slots may be used to address requirements of mission-critical applications. “By eliminating the requirement to pair channels for uplink and downlink, we will be able to offer our partners the flexibility necessary to use the spectrum exactly how they need, and with greater efficiencies,” Chhibber noted. He added that uplink-heavy users such as utilities – for monitoring purposes, as an example – will be able to deploy tailormade networks to achieve their priorities.

Peng also explained that the goRAN™ Base Station will integrate with chipsets supporting Band 54 and with a utility-hardened LTE endpoint module currently in development. Ubiik’s recent acquisition of utility networks provider Mimomax Wireless will provide North American utilities with additional expertise in the deployment of multiple large-scale wireless networks.