The question of whether fixed wireless access service offers providers a long-term wireless broadband solution or will merely act as a stopgap during the transition from DSL to fiber depends on which competitor you ask.
Impact: A Broadband Nation Expo panel tried to answer that question last week and got very different perspectives from two wireless executives whose companies have pursued wildly divergent fixed wireless strategies. AT&T, according to executive Angela Wilkin, still considers its Internet Air product a bridge to fiber for most customers, designed to help transition them from legacy copper to the faster speeds and improved reliability offered by fiber. As such, AT&T doesn’t necessarily see fixed wireless as a product built for the long term. The company has maintained that position despite the growth of Internet Air, which now offers service in parts of 48 states and had 342,000 subscribers as of Q2. For the most part that reasoning is logical given AT&T’s investment in fiber. But there are some cases where it probably won’t ever make sense from a cost or logistical standpoint for AT&T to deploy fiber. The company has acknowledged that in those locations, a faster wireless product that enables it to decommission its legacy copper network makes sense, hinting that at least in some areas, fixed wireless does indeed offer a long-term option.
On the other hand, UScellular views fixed wireless as a long-term play because there are so many areas of the country where providers will never deploy fiber. From the UScellular perspective, those locations provide the perfect use case for fixed wireless, which right now is one of the few areas where the carrier is seeing growth (UScellular reported 134,000 fixed wireless subscribers as of Q2). UScellular networking executive Mike Dienhart asserted at the expo that the company remains committed to fixed wireless as a long-term solution, particularly for the largely rural footprint it serves. But because UScellular has limited spectrum holdings and the FCC can’t currently auction off additional 5G spectrum, its fixed wireless growth has proceeded slowly, with most of its customers still running on 4G. That should be improved upon if T-Mobile’s proposed UScellular acquisition gets approved.
There’s also another reason fixed wireless might be here to stay: Customers like it. According to a recent study by J.D. Power, fixed wireless continues to garner higher customer satisfaction than wired Internet service. The 2024 “U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study” surveyed 30,000 Internet customers on elements of satisfaction with their Internet providers and concluded that wireless Internet customers have an overall satisfaction rating 100 points higher than wired subscribers (on a 1,000-point scale). Because cost is an important element of overall customer satisfaction, it’s not surprising that 70% of fixed wireless customers characterized their Internet as affordable, compared with 53% of wired customers. The findings remained consistent with last year’s report, and the cost satisfaction gap also has been corroborated by other research. While fiber still wins on speed and reliability, customers who subscribe to fixed wireless services likely rank cost above those two metrics, making it the more accessible option. Customer satisfaction may then be the true driver behind the sustainability of fixed wireless. However, if the cost of service were to increase or speed and reliability fall further behind wireline broadband, it’s possible fixed wireless could eventually peter out. Until then, however, we should expect further disruption in the broadband market.
