Observers continue to debate the importance of 5G fixed wireless as a driver of increased home broadband market share for Verizon and T-Mobile, as well as a cause of slower cable TV home broadband net additions.
Cable operators predictably deny that fixed wireless will prove a threat, arguing that hybrid fiber coax speeds are fast enough to stay ahead. But financial results posted by Verizon and T-Mobile suggest that fixed wireless already has proven to be a key driver of home broadband market share gains.
The issue now is the fixed wireless rate of growth, compared to new fiber-to-home additions. Despite cable executive denials, more observers believe FTTH and fixed wireless are going to eat into cable's market share over time. How fast that happens is an issue.
But there have been signs of mobile ability to substitute for fixed network service over the past five years or so.
Some studies show that users in 2018 often found 4G mobile internet access was faster than their home broadband using Wi-Fi.
A key caveat here is that Wi-Fi device speed inside the home is not the same thing as the speed delivered to the home by the internet service provider.
Another possible caveat is that it is not clear how many of the speed comparisons used home Wi-Fi compared to public hotspot Wi-Fi. It is almost certainly the case that home Wi-Fi runs faster than public Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi is slower than line speed for a number of reasons, so to note that 4G data access is faster than home Wi-Fi is not to say that 4G mobile networks perform better than ISP fixed networks.
It is to say that a smartphone or other device able to use a 4G network might often experience faster speeds than delivered to that same device by the in-home Wi-Fi.
This might be even more relevant for comparisons of home Wi-Fi experience compared to 5G mobile network experience, as 5G is going to be faster than 4G, once the networks are substantially or fully populated. Even as early as 2020, early 5G was faster than Wi-Fi, according to Opensignal.
That also goes for 5G fixed wireless, as it is rolled out on a variety of frequencies globally. Generally speaking, if 4G was faster than Wi-Fi, there is a very good chance that 5G will be even faster, in comparison to Wi-Fi.
In countries that launched 5G early, 5G has proven to be faster than 4G and Wi-Fi, according to Opensignal. The sole exception was the U.S. market, where early 5G used low-band spectrum that does not support mid-band or millimeter wave speeds.
All of this is important for the development of 5G fixed wireless as an alternative to fixed line networks. In some markets, 5G fixed wireless is expected to be a key challenger to fixed network service.
Fixed wireless has become a major driver of Verizon home broadband net new account additions. That also is true of T-Mobile home broadband net account additions in the U.S. market.
In its first quarter of 2022, for example, fixed wireless supplied 85 percent of Verizon net home broadband account additions.
For its part, T-Mobile got fully a third of total net home broadband additions in the U.S. market in 2021, and all of those accounts gained used fixed wireless.
So 5G mobile and fixed wireless speeds will be a huge material factor in driving Verizon and T-Mobile home broadband market share gains, as well as a limitation on cable TV operator net additions as well.
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