ABI Research highlighted that the U.S. is currently driving the number of 5G FWA connections with major carriers aggressively expanding their FWA business
5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technology will reach 58 million subscriptions globally in 2026, according to ABI Research.
The analyst firm noted that FWA technology allows mobile operators to reuse their existing mobile infrastructure to offer faster and more affordable broadband services. FWA using 4G has already been deployed widely by operators worldwide, but it is often unable to provide speeds that can compete with wired broadband connections, ABI said. With 5G, FWA can offer fiber-like speed due to the improved spectral efficiency with advanced antenna technologies, making it a competitive alternative to wired broadband solutions, according to the report.
ABI Research also highlighted that the United States is currently driving the number of 5G FWA connections with major operators aggressively expanding their FWA business.
“MNOs can launch 5G FWA services to boost revenues by using their spare network capacity in the short term. However, in the long term, 5G FWA depends on sufficient network capacity and spectrum and the optimization of network resources,” said Fei Liu, 5G and mobile network infrastructure industry analyst at ABI Research. “An FWA user can consume 40X more network resources than a mobile user. Therefore, MNOs need to conduct a proper market assessment and detailed plan to understand the required capacity in their targeted markets and how many FWA subscribers they can truly support.”
The report also highlighted that the 5G FWA market will experience growth with the ongoing 5G network expansion, adding that the strategy to offer 5G FWA varies with MNOs targeting different markets. The main strategies include 5G FWA for last-mile connectivity, 5G FWA for business, 5G FWA to connect the unconnected, 5G FWA as a value-added service and 5G FWA as a backup for fixed broadband, according to ABI Research.
“5G FWA in the short term will progress without facing any capacity constraints, and MNOs should launch FWA to expand revenue by exploiting excess network capacity,” Liu added. “MNOs considering FWA as a long-term solution should use Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques such as Machine Learning (ML) to generate in-depth analysis on the network quality and user experience, based on traffic growth, service and network Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), to help improve network resource utilization.”
ABI Research had previously forecasted that the total number of FWA subscriptions will grow from 81 million globally in 2021 to slightly over 180 million in 2026, representing a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17%. Consequently, ABI Research believes that global FWA Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) shipments will reach 47 million annually by 2026.
