Connect (X) 2023
In a Connect (X) 2023 panel this week, panelists tackled the question, “FWA: Is it a Stop-Gap Measure or Long-Term Solution?” I served as moderator for a panel that included Rebecca Murphy Thompson, Vice President-Government Affairs, UScellular; Aspa Paroutsas, Vice President, Federal Regulatory Affairs, Qualcomm; and John Hunter, Senior Director, Government Affairs, Engineering and Technology Policy, T-Mobile. The panel addressed the issue from their relative perspectives. The consensus was that carrier-based fixed wireless access is viable and will likely be a long-term play.
From the top, the panel made the distinction between two types of FWA architectures: carrier-based, and facilities-based. Carrier-based FWA allocates a portion of licensed spectrum used on the mobile network, from a macrocell or small cell, to a stationary router located at the customer premise. The panel discussion focused on carrier-based FWA.
T-Mobile and UScellular along with Verizon are the leading proponents of carrier-based FWA. At the end of 1Q23, T-Mobile had an industry-leading 3.1 million FWA subscribers, adding 523,000 in the quarter alone. Verizon reported 1.9 million FWA subs and UScellular grew its FWA base to nearly 100,000.
By contrast, facilities-based FWA, used by wireless internet service providers, involves a base station on a tower typically operating on unlicensed spectrum in a point-to-multipoint configuration. Signals are transmitted and received, mainly over a line-of-sight connection, (non-line-of-sight links in certain instances), to an antenna mounted on the outside of a customer’s building. The antenna connects to an indoor router that broadcasts WiFi inside the building.
Hunter pointed out that T-Mobile is delivering FWA as part of its 5G Ultra Capacity service that utilizes 2.5 GHz and now covers 275 million people in the U.S. He says the company has licenses for C-band and 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum in key parts of the country and will roll out FWA on those frequencies beginning in late 2023 and into 2024.
Similarly, Thompson said that UScellular’s FWA is focused on rural areas in roughly 40 percent of the company’s 21-state operating footprint. She acknowledges that UScellular’s FWA is not competitive with existing fiber but the company is aggressively marketing it everywhere else. Rolling out FWA in rural markets is more manageable from a network capacity aspect, with less dense utilization and less competition with mobility. UScellular’s initial FWA rollout was in low-band 700 MHz spectrum but it will offer FWA both in midband C-band and 3.45 GHz spectrum and millimeter wave spectrum, where applicable, starting in late 2023 and running for a multiyear period.
Paroutsas explained that Qualcomm’s chipset enables FWA to operate on a wide range of existing frequency bands being used by both U.S. and international MNOs. The chips are built into the customer premise equipment that the users can install themselves. The CPE receives RF signals from a nearby macrocell then broadcasts WiFi inside the premises. Paroutsas would not comment on Qualcomm’s product roadmap for FWA chipsets, only saying that the company supports its MNO customer’s future FWA rollouts.
On the question of mobile traffic having priority over FWA connections, both Hunter and Thompson made the point that each FWA deployment is highly engineered to ensure adequate fixed capacity during peak mobile traffic periods. T-Mobile and UScellular are engineering their respective FWA service to meet the objective 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload speeds but expect to deliver speeds at several times higher than that over time.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor
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