One single base-station can provide fixed wireless access (FWA) connectivity for all households in a small town with the right amount of spectrum. FWA can deliver for unconnected communities and provide fibre-like speeds for a fraction of the cost of digging fibre trenches. It can open the door to lowering the usage gap, supporting digital inclusion, and driving economic growth. Now, increasingly, FWA is also providing competition, including in urban areas in high-income countries.
In early-adopter and majority markets alike, FWA has proven to be an important use case for 5G technology, with many operators prioritising the solution in their overall 5G rollout strategy. As of January 2024, 117 operators in 57 markets had launched 5G FWA, according to GSMA Intelligence – more than half of the countries where 5G is present. GSMA Intelligence research also states that FWA’s percentage of market share, compared to other broadband solutions, is expected to triple between 2020 and 2030.
Recent analysis of the US market, conducted by analytics company Opensignal, effectively illustrates the impact of FWA driven by mid-band spectrum. In the mature US market (where broadband penetration is 97%), FWA is the main driver for new broadband growth (90%), providing almost as high a percentage of connections in urban areas (6%) of the US as it is in rural areas (7%). GSMA Intelligence believes that markets in high-income countries will see a much higher proportion of the broadband mix coming from FWA in years to come, with even densely populated Western European countries having 10-20% FWA market share by 2030.
The clear business advantage of FWA is that it can reach consumers without the need for connecting each premises with FTTH, away from the fibre core. This leads to affordability and expenditure gains – with similar or higher speeds. Opensignal also highlights the impact of the self-install capabilities of FWA, meaning customers can buy routers from stores and set up connections with an app, without any requirement for an engineer. This advantage may be a reason why FWA is competing in urban areas, especially amongst younger users.
Spectrum requirements
Mid-band spectrum has been the main driver of 5G launches and future expansion. By the end of Q1 2024, over 75 percent of network launches had used the 3.5 GHz range. It is also expected to help realise the largest portion of 5G’s socio-economic benefits, an increase of more than $610 billion in global GDP in 2030, accounting for almost 65% of the overall socio-economic value generated by 5G. FWA will be the second most important use case to delivering this economic benefit.
Spectrum access has a direct impact on FWA performance and, according to Opensignal, the biggest reason for the US development is access to mid-band spectrum. Its analysis describes the impact of “huge swaths” of mid-band, including over 300 MHz in the 3.5 GHz range and almost 180 MHz of 2.5 GHz spectrum.
US MNOs have added more than eight million 5G FWA subscribers with huge monthly data demand – nearly 500 GB per month of data per user. The overall mobile network experience has not been compromised despite this – and average 5G download speeds have almost tripled as spectrum availability has increased alongside network development. The US now needs to look to the future to maintain its leadership as new mid-band spectrum is uncertain in the country due to restrictions in the lower 3.5 GHz and no planned expansion in bands such as 6 GHz.
Mobile networks will need, on average, 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum per country by 2030 and the right spectrum availability can help continued success, in the US and elsewhere. Roadmaps for additional capacity are needed for sustainable growth of mobile and fixed services.
FWA opportunity
- 5G FWA is revolutionary in its provision of instant quality and affordability, as well as its delivery of digital inclusion.
- FWA is a solution in mature markets and in growing markets. It may be the only solution to bring fibre-like speeds to specific areas but also competes with fibre elsewhere.
- Spectrum availability supports FWA growth and a clear roadmap for additional capacity is important for the sustainable growth of mobile and fixed services:
a. Ensuring that existing mid-bands are fully assigned to mobile operators on a technology neutral basis, allowing them to be used for the latest technologies.
b. Making 3.3-3.8 GHz available for mobile.
c. Making 6 GHz band at 6.425-7.125 GHz available for licensed, macro-cell mobile.