Fixed wireless access (FWA) services date back a decade to the start of the 4G era but it is only with the advent of 5G that they are generating much excitement among operators. Qualcomm has picked up the mood in playing the Covid card to play up prospects for sustained growth in FWA, stimulated by its own second generation platform, unveiled earlier this month.
This comprises three hardware components – the Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System in all configurations, combined either with the QTM547 extended range antenna module for millimeter wave spectrum, or with eight receive antennas for sub-6 GHz 5G. These all operate with Dynamic Antenna Steering (DAS) to optimize delivery.
Although the send and receive radios may be fixed, signal trajectories can vary, which is most problematical for mmWave where ideally there would line of sight (LOS). The combination of extended range and DAS addresses more challenging RF conditions without LOS, for example by dynamically rotating antennas to receive the strongest signal as that varies over time.
Qualcomm likes to refer to FWA as ‘fiber through the air’, as CEO-elect Cristiano Amon indicated in a video presentation. “There are still lots of regions and people that are not connected to the Internet at all,” he said. “Although we have technologies like cable and fiber that technically can be rolled out to everyone, it will take years before they can provide ubiquitous connectivity, not to mention the cost and time-consuming challenges that come with last mile deployment of these technologies. That’s why making 5G fixed wireless access a commercial reality is so important to Qualcomm.”
FWA, whether over 4G or 5G, is sometimes regarded as an alternative to WiFi, but that is misleading. WiFi is usually deployed in conjunction with fixed broadband, which can be regarded as its backhaul to the premise. FWA in some cases can replace both fixed and WiFi at a stroke, but in other cases would be deployed in combination with WiFi, which then covers the final hop as an access layer.
Operators are also getting excited by the prospect of FWA reaching consumers that until now have been beyond their own range for adequate QoS, as well as that of fixed broadband operators. 5G will also change the goal posts somewhat by making FWA a competitive alternative to fixed broadband for some premises where it was not before. But the principal target comprises a large swathe of premises that may in some cases have had Internet access before but at very low bit rates and poor reliability.
This includes a number of rural locations in developed countries a long way from the nearest fixed line CO (central office), as well as many developing areas where there is little prospect of acceptable broadband speeds being attained affordably any other way.
In the USA, T-Mobile and Verizon have been most visible in FWA. In October 2020, TMO kicked off with an LTE-based FWA consumer Internet service, available to 20m households. Priced at $50 per month this was offered with three different TV packages under the Tvision brands at an additional $40, $50 or $60 per month. This is not very cheap by global standards but competitive in the US where traditional pay-TV operators have been bleeding video subscribers for some years now from rather bloated and expensive packages.
TMO is hoping to mop up some of this churn from legacy services, including fixed TV/broadband packages from its two mobile rivals AT&T and Verizon, with CEO Mike Sievert underlining the importance of a TV package to entice broadband customers. “Now we’re getting after broadband and it’s important to have a great TV offer because people often make that decision at the same time,” he said.
Meanwhile Verizon launched its FWA service based on LTE in July 2020, initially in just three states, but expanding to 48 three months later in October, leaving out just Alaska and Vermont. Verizon also played the Covid card, touting its LTE Home Internet as a benevolent service to help its consumer customers either work or learn remotely. This is more expensive than TMO’s offer at $60 a month for non-Verizon wireless customers, with the additional cost of $240 for the self-install home router. Most operators have moved towards self-install to compete with fixed broadband DSL services, especially in more rural areas.
Verizon did also indicate it was pitching the service at small and medium enterprises (SMEs), but this is likely to become more of an emphasis with higher speeds under 5G. Currently Verizon is offering unlimited data at rates between 25 and 50Mbps, which will not be enough for many enterprises with heavier requirements, such as some health care agencies looking to upload and download scanned images at any regularity.
One situation where FWA has already gained some traction under 4G is for sites that require fixed access but just on a temporary basis with rapid set-up. This includes construction sites and civil engineering companies, where BT’s EE MNO in the UK has reported some successes. Examples include housing association Green Square for connectivity to building sites, and Jackson Civil Engineering for connecting new project sites quickly.
In these cases it is the ability to establish adequate connectivity quickly and flexibly without need to lay fixed lines that won the day for FWA. The next step under 5G will be to compete directly against fixed broadband in the enterprise sector in cases where direct fiber to the premise is not practical or affordable.