Australia’s state-owned wholesale broaband provider, NBN, has outdone even the country’s innovative incumbent, Telstra, on the carrier aggregation front. It has aggregated a total of 11 carriers to deliver 1.1Gbps downlink speeds, without even having to wait for 5G. Broadband providers are showing strong interest in 5G-based fixed wireless, especially if they have large rural areas to penetrate, or – like Verizon – have a limited fiber footprint. 5G may enable them to break out of the constraints of previous broadband wireless access technologies – very much a last resort for the underserved – and offer a user experience which is comparable to that of fiber (though of course, fiber technology is advancing too, and fiber-to-the-home is becoming more feasible…