The rise in usage of home broadband lines during the Covid-19 pandemic, with its enforced shift towards home working, is proving an unexpected endorsement of the 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) model. In the first days of commercial 5G, FWA was center stage because of Verizon’s high profile launch, but the US telco was almost unique in claiming it had a standalone business case for fixed home services. For other early movers, FWA was a way to start signing up subscribers in targeted areas even before they had built out much coverage (Three UK); a means of exploiting a spectrum advantage as quickly as possible before rivals acquired more capacity too (Optus Australia, and Three again); a way to test…