Overview

The provided charts visualize the daily count of spectrum grants issued by the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) Spectrum Access System (SAS), broken down by access tier types: GAA (General Authorized Access) in blue and PAL (Priority Access Licenses) in green. The data spans from mid-2022 to mid-2025 (current date: November 05, 2025).

The upper chart is a stacked area plot showing absolute daily grant volumes (# grants/day), while the lower chart normalizes the same data as a stacked percentage of total daily grants (100% total per day). Both illustrate a clear upward trajectory in overall SAS activity, driven primarily by GAA grants, with PAL maintaining a smaller but stable share.

Key Trends in Daily Grant Counts (Upper Chart)

• GAA Dominance: The blue GAA layer forms the vast majority of the stack, starting small (~300k/day by late 2022) and surging to ~900k–1M/day by 2025. It shows steady compounding growth, with minor fluctuations (e.g., a slight dip around mid-2023).
• PAL Contribution: The green PAL layer is much thinner, emerging around 2023 at ~100k–200k/day and growing modestly to ~200k–300k/day by 2025. It adds incremental volume but doesn't drive the overall scale-up.
• Seasonal/Periodic Patterns: Subtle waves in the stacks (e.g., peaks in late 2023 and 2024) may indicate usage cycles tied to deployments, auctions, or regulatory events, but the long-term trend is unambiguously upward.

Composition by Type (Lower Chart)

• GAA Share: Consistently high at 80–86% of total daily grants across the period. It starts at ~86% in 2022 (when volumes were low), dips slightly to ~80% during the 2023–2024 growth phase as PAL ramps up, and stabilizes around 82–85% in 2025. This reflects GAA's role as the "open-access" tier—easier to obtain, lower priority, but scalable for broad deployment.
• PAL Share: The remainder (14–20%), starting near 14% in 2022, peaking at ~20% in 2023–2024, and settling at 15–18% by 2025. PAL, being auctioned and higher-priority, represents premium spectrum but limited by availability (only 70 MHz nationwide vs. GAA's opportunistic access).
• Stability in Proportions: Unlike the absolute counts, percentages show minimal volatility, indicating a balanced ecosystem where GAA absorbs most new demand without eroding PAL's niche.

In summary, CBRS SAS grants have scaled dramatically, with GAA powering 80%+ of activity and enabling widespread adoption, while PAL provides a reliable but secondary layer. This data points to a thriving, enterprise-focused spectrum market entering steady-state growth by late 2025.