T-Mobile, Verizon Fixed Wireless Raise Capacity Issues: MoffettNathanson

MoffettNathanson said T-Mobile's and Verizon's fixed wireless offerings raise complicated questions. “Consider the network capacity implications of fixed wireless,” the analyst firm emailed Tuesday. “Most investors will by this point understand that the burden of serving homes with a wired broadband replacement is far greater than that of serving individual phones for mobility.” T-Mobile says the average fixed wireless customer is using 35 GB monthly, or about triple the average unlimited LTE user, the firm said: “Total network throughput is largely irrelevant (although, at least for conceptualizing orders of magnitude, it is useful for framing the discussion). What matters is highly localized throughput, and indeed, highly localized throughput -- individual sectors of individual cells -- at specific times of day.” According to OpenVault, the average cable broadband household uses some 434 GB a month, or 40 times more than an average unlimited wireless customer, it said. At current pricing, a typical fixed wireless customer generates about $50 in monthly revenue, or about 10 cents/GB, which compares with $48, or about $4.36/GB, MoffettNathanson said: “As a business matter, it would be hard to imagine prioritizing $0.10 per GB customers over $4.36 per GB customers; one would therefore assume that T-Mobile will be incredibly careful to ensure that [fixed] customers don’t impede the experience of vastly more valuable mobile customers.”