- Starry went bankrupt and then reorganized and was bought by Verizon
- CBNG offers a similar service as Starry, and it’s already won a big U.S. Tier 1 customer
- CBNG is establishing offices and a warehouse in the Dallas area
Cambridge Broadband Networks Group (CBNG), a company headquartered in the U.K., is running a business in the U.S., which is similar to Starry Internet. This is interesting given that Starry struggled mightily.
There was a time when Starry was a real “star” in the telecom world as a fast-growing fixed wireless access (FWA) provider, using mmWave spectrum to serve multi-dwelling units. The company even went public in a splashy IPO. But then things went sideways, and Starry declared bankruptcy. Ultimately, the company was acquired by Verizon and folded into the big telecom provider in March 2026.
Enter CBNG
Recently, CBNG announced the opening of its first U.S. operations hub, to be located in Richardson, Texas, near Dallas. The company employs about 85 people, and it expects to have about 20 people in the U.S. within the next two years.
Fierce Network spoke with CBNG CEO Nedko Ivanov, who said the Texas facility will be a combination office space, warehouse, technical support and demonstration area. CBNG will also load its own software onto third-party hardware at the facility.
The new facility will support the deployment of CBNG’s latest FWA solution, VectaStar NR, which delivers a fiber-like performance, using 5G technology. VectaStar NR is not proprietary, but rather it's compliant with 3GPP 5G standards.
Why is CBNG locating near Dallas?
Ivanov said CBNG has one Tier 1 customer in the U.S. who’s using its VectraStar NR product, although he couldn’t name the customer. However, Fierce speculates that it might be AT&T, which is headquartered in Dallas.
CBNG’s technology rides on licensed mmWave spectrum in the 37-39 GHz range, and there aren’t that many companies in the U.S. that own that kind of spectrum, except for the major telcos Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile. EchoStar also owns some 39 GHz and some smaller wireless operators own this type of mmWave in certain areas.
Asked if CBNG was interested in getting business with all three Tier 1s, Ivanov said, “Oh, absolutely. If the use case makes sense for one of them, it should make sense for the other two.” He also stressed that the company would be happy to work with Tier 2s and Tier 3s as well, and it’s currently working on FWA technology for 26-28 GHz spectrum.
CBNG is focusing on the U.S. because it’s “where the market is more mature,” said Ivanov. “If you look at Europe, it has a lot of fiber deployed. If fiber is already there, why would anyone deploy fixed wireless access?”
CBNG’s technology
Ivanov said CBNG is “very much like Starry,” in terms of offering FWA to multi-dwelling units. But he said Starry was both a technology company and an operator, whereas CBNG sells its technology but doesn’t act as an operator.
Other vendors that offer FWA for mmWave spectrum would include Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung. But Ivanov said CBNG is different because those larger vendors’ technology runs on the operator’s 5G core of the mobile network, whereas CBNG offers an out-of-the-box solution with an embedded core along with the CU and DU. This has the benefit of not draining capacity on the mobile operator’s network.