U.S. Fixed Wireless Market About to be Rearranged

With Google, Facebook and AT&T exploring, testing or intending to deploy fixed wireless  for Internet access networks, the fixed wireless industry is on the brink of major redefinition. AT&T alone has said it would use fixed wireless to serve 13 million locations.

Others such as Starry, also are hoping fixed wireless emerges as a major platform for providing Internet access.

In 2012, there were perhaps 2,000 to 2,500 fixed wireless Internet service providers supplying Internet access to two million to three million subscribers in the United States, according to the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association.

So just about any serious deployment of Google, Facebook or AT&T fixed wireless would immediately reshape the U.S. fixed wireless business.

At 13 million connections, AT&T alone would represent 87 percent of all U.S. fixed wireless installed base, even if Google Fiber and Facebook added zero new accounts in the U.S. market.

Assuming Google is able to add only incrementally to its present installed base of accounts, while Facebook does not even enter the U.S. market, AT&T now looms as the major factor in the U.S. fixed wireless market.