Verizon and AT&T both hosted earnings calls last week, and one of the more notable contrasts between the two was their different responses when asked by analysts about fixed wireless.
Actually, Verizon did not wait to be asked, and included commentary and numerical metrics on fixed wireless in its prepared remarks. “For the first time, we are providing fixed wireless net adds,” the carrier told investors. It picked up 55,000 new fixed wireless subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total to 150,000.
“We’re just ramping fixed wireless access,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said later in the call in response to an analyst question. He added that Verizon will be adding C-band spectrum to its fixed wireless access (FWA) sites, which now use mmWave spectrum primarily.
Verizon also noted a good mix of consumer and business subscribers for its FWA service, saying small and medium businesses are particularly interested. One day later, AT&T Communications CEO Jeffrey McElfresh answered a question on FWA in a much less enthusiastic tone.
“Right now for our broadband business, as you know, we’re focused on fiber,” he said. “But we do offer some fixed wireless services. And it’s predominantly focused today in the enterprise segment, where most of those clients are looking for a 4G or 5G wireless backhaul. We are experimenting, as is everyone else, in leveraging our scaled wireless network to maybe augment pockets and areas with some fixed wireless, but it honestly is not a lead product for us. And we won’t make that top of the funnel for our broadband services.”
AT&T’s progress with FWA could make a difference to some of its DSL internet customers, who are unlikely to get fiber to their homes. AT&T has said in the past that FWA could eventually be a way to bring broadband to these customers.
In May, AT&T CEO John Stankey told the audience at the JPMorgan Global Technology, Media & Communications Conference fixed wireless could provide a “voice replacement” for some customers who are unlikely to get fiber. “It allows us to shut down some infrastructure over time,” he said.
How much time is to be determined; Stankey predicted at the JPMorgan conference that it will be 2024 or 2025 before FWA provides the type of speeds the FCC would classify as broadband.
The different postures adopted by Verizon and AT&T with respect to FWA may be a function of their different spectrum positions, and may change over time if the spectrum used for FWA shifts toward the midband. Right now, 5G FWA deployments in the U.S are primarily using mmWave spectrum, and Verizon holds more of that than its competitors.
T-Mobile has also been using its mmWave spectrum for 5G FWA, and has promoted the service aggressively, especially to enterprise customers. Now that Verizon has published a subscriber number for its FWA business, it will be interesting to see if T-Mobile does the same when it reports earnings early next month.
Veteran telecom industry editor and journalist Martha DeGrasse is an Inside Towers Contributing Analyst with features appearing twice per month. DeGrasse owns Network Builder Reports and contributes regularly to several publications. She was formerly a writer and editor with RCR Wireless and a TV business news producer.
By Martha DeGrasse, Inside Towers Contributing Analyst
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