Markets for "Good Enough" Home Broadband are Substantial

As far as home broadband platforms go, fixed wireless, though faster than digital subscriber line, is far less capable than fiber to home or hybrid fiber coax platforms. So why is fixed wireless growing as a percentage of U.S. home broadband accounts?

In 2023, for example, virtually 100 percent of U.S. net home broadband net account additions for the internet service providers with 90 percent of more of total market share.

Though we often seem to focus on the headline speeds and services, customers do not always want to buy those services.

Price-value relationships seem to matter most. In many parts of the United States, the competition is DSL and HFC. And there, fixed wireless is faster than DSL and more affordable than HFC. 

By most estimates, only about 30 percent of U.S. home locations have the ability to buy a fiber-to-home service. If so, then roughly 70 percent of the U.S. home broadband market is potentially amenable to fixed wireless purchases for those customers who want speeds faster than DSL but do not wish to pay the going rate for HFC service at speeds above 200 Mbps. 

In 2023, for example, virtually all net account additions in the U.S. market were supported by fixed wireless. Both FTTH and HFC platforms lost net accounts, according to Leichtman Research Group. 

Broadband Providers	Subscribers at end of 2023	Net Adds in 2023
Cable Companies
Comcast	32,253,000	-66,000
Charter	30,588,000	155,000
Altice	4,517,900	-114,100
Cable One	1,059,300	-1,100
Breezeline^	663,286	-29,184
Other major private companies,	7,020,000	-8,000
Total Top Cable	76,101,486	-63,384
Wireline Phone Companies
AT&T	15,288,000	-98,000
Verizon	7,650,000	166,000
Frontier^	2,943,000	75,000
Lumen	2,758,000	-279,000
Windstream	1,175,000	0
TDS	539,800	29,800
Consolidated	393,219	25,761
Total Top Wireline Phone	30,747,019	-80,439
Fixed Wireless Services
T-Mobile	4,776,000	2,130,000
Verizon^	3,067,000	1,536,000
Total Top Fixed Wireless	7,843,000	3,666,000
Total Top Broadband	114,691,505	3,522,177

              source: Leichtman Research Group

Over time, the percentage of customers who will be able to buy a fiber-to-home service will grow. Over time, the "typical" speeds customers require also will grow. So FTTH remains the platform of the future. 

It is just that, between now and then--and even if FTTH is eventually available to nearly the whole market, segments will continue to exist. 

The distribution of buyers might still resemble a "bell curve skewed to the right" in terms of segments. Most customers will still be in the center of the curve, with a bigger high-end tail than the low-end tail.