Experts Debate Advantages of Fiber Over Fixed Wireless
Fiber has advantages over fixed-wireless access (FWA), which is why fiber is at the start of a boom cycle, said Gary Bolton, president of the Fiber Broadband Association, during an Informa Tech webinar Wednesday. FWA proponents countered it also has advantages and is cheaper and easier to deploy than fiber. The wireless industry is seeking to make FWA a bigger part of the $42 billion broadband, equity, access and deployment (BEAD) program (see 2301230052).
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Despite supply-chain, labor and other challenges, the U.S. is at “the beginning of the largest fiber investment cycle in history,” Bolton said. Fiber providers passed 7.9 million additional homes last year, the most ever, beating 7.2 million in 2019, he said.
“Coming out of the pandemic, no one is asking ‘why fiber’ anymore,” Bolton said. Current subsidies supporting buildout are running at about seven times average and “in addition, we’re seeing huge” capital expenditure investments from ISPs “using their own capital and from private equity and other investors,” he said: “Foreign investors are also coming in to try and participate in this fiber gold rush.” Bolton expects BEAD money to flow in about a year.
Wireless carriers rely on fiber, and 80% of calls on wireless phones go over fixed infrastructure, Bolton said. “The first rule of wireless is get it out of the air and into the ground at the first available point,” he said. As antennas move within 500 meters of devices, “fiber is going to be critical,” he said. FBA predicts more fiber will be deployed in the next five years than was built in all previous years -- an additional 76.8 million homes.
Challenges remain, with more capital available than fiber providers can use, Bolton said. “The capex is there,” he said: “We have to worry about do we have the workforce, … supply chain, materials and things like that.” Permitting is also a concern, he said.
Vistabeam, a Nebraska-based provider, sees FWA “as a little bit of a regulatory bypass,” said CEO Matt Larsen. The company also deploys fiber and has had “a long wait to get all of your permitting and financing and engineering done, and then actually going out and building a fiber network,” he said: “It takes a long time.” In one town, it's taking Vistabeam six months to deploy fiber, while installing fixed wireless there took about 60 days, he said. Fixed wireless is “resurgent” now and is generating so much interest “because it’s a competitive alternative,” he said.
“Laying fiber is very costly,” said Nirlay Kundu, Verizon distinguished engineer. “Fixed wireless offers a solution for connecting rural Americans” and enables carriers to deliver high-speed internet “at economically viable build costs,” he said. FWA costs as much as 40% less than fiber to the home, he said. “Installation is very flexible, so unlike other technologies it can be installed quickly and easily without needing to dig trenches,” he said.
Kundu said all spectrum ranges are being used for FWA, but limitations remain. Transmission distance is limited and environmental factors can affect performance, he said. The technology is also “continually evolving,” he said.
FWA isn’t just for rural markets, said Tomas Krestak, director-product and innovation at O2, a provider in the Czech Republic. In central Prague, wireless is easier to install because it’s so hard to lay fiber, he said. Fixed wireless also allows more innovation since wireless infrastructure can be upgraded multiple times during the 20-year lifecycle of fiber, he said.
If O2 starts to plan for fiber today, it may not be in the ground until 2025 “and maybe never,” based on regulatory approvals, Krestak said. The standard speeds O2 is seeing for both are basically the same, he said.
People in suburban markets are also turning to FWA, said Basil Alwan, CEO of equipment maker Tarana Wireless. Part of that is competition, he said. There are also “a lot of stranded streets … that didn’t get the [fiber] build,” he said: “They’re in a census area that everybody says is served, but they’re actually not.”
Factors like landscape and population density dictate whether fiber or FWA are best suited for a market, said Brown Wolf Consulting’s Ralph Brown. “Understand your markets first,” he said.