Fixed Wireless Access Biggest Surprise of 2022: WIA Chief
The biggest, most surprising wireless development last year was the “explosion” of fixed wireless access, Wireless Infrastructure Association President Patrick Halley blogged Tuesday. FWA “emerged as a 5G killer app and a real competitor to fiber and cable home broadband…
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access,” he said: “You know FWA is having an impact in the market when Comcast is running ads to compete with the technology.” Ericsson recently estimated there were more than 100 million FWA connections worldwide at the end of 2022, he said. Verizon and T-Mobile “added an incredible 900,000 new U.S, subscribers in Q3 alone, with T-Mobile doubling its total number of internet customers in only six months,” Halley said: “UScellular is doubling its FWA subscriber base every 18 months.” Steven Vondran, president of American Tower’s U.S. tower division, joined Halley on the blog and also mentioned FWA. “The availability of mid-band spectrum for wireless marked a step forward in the acceleration of 5G in 2022," Vondran said: “With the rising demand for 5G services, these frequencies provide capacity, speed, and reach to increase performance that wasn’t possible with low bands. As a result, last year we saw increased wireless deployment at scale from Mobile Network Operators.” Leticia Latino-van Splunteren, CEO of WIA member Neptuno USA, said 5G started to take off last year. “2022 was the year where there was ‘less talking’ and ‘more doing’ around 5G infrastructure deployment and networks modernization,” she said: “Even if supply chain challenges and workforce shortages may have hindered achieving the expected deployment speed, it was still a year of substantial progress and on laying a foundation on that front. The equipment being deployed together with several device manufacturers officially launching their 5G smartphones allowed us to start getting ‘glimpses’ of what 5G has promised to do for the world.”