Global Suppliers Group Sees No Signs Fixed Wireless Growth Will Slow

Fixed wireless access is accelerating and shows no signs of slowing down, experts said during a Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) FWA Forum webinar Wednesday. GSA identified announced FWA service offers using LTE or 5G from 535 operators in 186 countries and territories and launched service from 455 operators in 173, per a new report.

More than 90% of recent broadband adds in the U.S. have been FWA “and this is not weakening at all,” said GSA FWA Forum Chair Julien Grivolas, director-European wireless network strategy planning and industry development at Huawei. “There is still a huge digital divide globally” with 3.7 billion people without any connection to the internet. FWA isn’t limited to developed or developing countries and is “ramping up in all kinds of economies,” he said.

Fixed wireless is “a strong strategic tool and a strong differentiator,” Grivolas said. Vodafone Group and CK Hutchison highlighted FWA Wednesday in announcing a deal to combine (see 2306140026), promising to bring fixed wireless to 82% of U.K. households by 2030, he noted. “We see the increased importance of fixed wireless access everywhere,” he said.

GSA data “shows very clearly continued growth” in FWA “services and devices overall, although slowing on an overall level,” said Simon Bryant, GSA vice president-research. Growth is coming as carriers work to close the digital divide and replace DSL for other customers, along with the continuing trend of many working from home, he said. “5G will continue to grow strongly and there’s plenty of room for further growth,” he said.

LTE and 5G FWA “are widely positioned as an easy, flexible alternative to fixed broadband, with no installation and no waiting time,” the GSA report said. It notes the customer premise equipment (CPE) market is fragmented, with 122 vendors selling equipment, up from 99 identified in November, and no vendor has more than 6.5% of the model types available.

Bell Canada started to study FWA in 2016 and launched two years later, said Tim Hughes, senior manager-enterprise IoT and fixed wireless products. The initial product offered 25 Mbps downlink speed, 1 Mbps for uplinks, and Bell quickly realized it needed to increase uplink speeds to make the service “acceptable” and increased it to 5 Mbps, he said.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic “really sent shock waves throughout the industry,” Hughes said. “For us, it greatly impacted the way we worked” and “the availability of product,” as well as customer demand, he said. “We persevered,” and by the end of 2020, Bell completed the approval of its second generation of FWA CPE with higher speeds. Bell got access to 3.5 GHz spectrum through a 2022 auction and is now deploying 3rd generation gear, which added 5G standalone capability, he said.

“We have certainly learned a lot along the way,” but challenges remain, Hughes said. Among them is “maximizing spectral efficiency,” which is “critical to making sure you can support an acceptable user experience, but at the same time get as many customers on each cell as possible,” he said.

All of Bell’s CPE installations are made outdoors, requiring installation by professionals, since such installations are more complicated, Hughes said. Bell is making “maximum use” of traffic balancing and priority management on its radio access network, he said. That’s especially important when FWA is sharing spectrum with mobile wireless customers to “protect mobility traffic but also to maximize the fixed-wireless experience and to ensure that you’re providing fair access to the users,” he said.

Using the right tools for predicting coverage is also important, Hughes said, noting the provider invested a lot in modeling tools: “The selection of sites for builds and the order in which you build sites is very much driven by these coverage predictions and where the opportunities lie.”

Telia had a similar experience as Bell Canada, launching its FWA 5G offering in late 2020, said Espen Weum, who heads the mobile network at the Norwegian provider. About 75% of customers are now on 5G, he said. Telia also had “big success” with a service offering TV over FWA, he said. So far, 65% of fixed wireless customers picked up the service.

The last step was the launch of “do it yourself” installations, Weum said. “It’s a window-mounted unit so it’s supposed to be placed outdoors,” he said. The downside is Telia doesn’t have the same control over where the gear is placed, he said. About 80% of new customers are choosing self-installation “which is a very fast way of getting your fixed wireless access,” he said. Telia has also been focused on Wi-Fi because it’s “the key to customer experience,” he said.

In Norway, FWA isn’t viewed as a tool for closing the digital divide, since 96% of households have access to 100 Mbps service, which has been a focus of the Norwegian government, Weum said. “We started out aiming at DSL customers,” he said. Telia is finding 70% of sales are in competition with fiber, he said: “We are selling in more suburban and urban areas,” though “we started out looking at FWA as a more rural project.”