Toward 'Fiber-Like' Wireless BroadbandToward 'Fiber-Like' Wireless Broadband

Fixed wireless broadband is flavor of the month -- again. As mentioned in my last column, adoption is driven fundamentally by worldwide demand for connectivity. In markets where wireline connectivity is poor, it goes without saying that an optimized fixed wireless solution has an important role to play. (See The Return of Fixed Wireless Access.)

There are now many operators using LTE technology to offer wireless broadband to homes around the world in markets as diverse as Spain (Orange), South Africa (Telkom) and Australia (NBN). In both mature and fast-growing countries, there is a proven operations model for LTE fixed access to provide an effective alternative to DSL at the lower end of the speed range, typically for rural and underserved suburban areas.

In other markets, fixed wireless is being positioned as a way to provide fiber-like services to residential customers without having to dig a trench across their front gardens and as a fast-to-deploy connectivity solution to enterprise premises. Two recent pieces of operator news show how operators are seeking to boost revenues by taking customers from competitors that aren't doing a particularly great job with wireline access.

Wireless solutions that use high-band mmWave spectrum to step up performance to a level equivalent to high-end cable or fiber services are clearly more challenging than LTE. There are certainly reasons to be optimistic: The technical modelling looks good, chipset integration is underway, and product development is making progress from today's prototypes to mass-market industrial devices.

The crucial test, however, is real-world performance. Factors such as how many premises can be connected to a given basestation installation, how predictable the service quality is, and how deployments can adapt to changing environments and conditions -- for example, issues related to foliage or building materials -- are all critical. And once setup and installation is addressed, the really, really important factor is the long-term operational costs of fixed wireless access.

The goal of a wireless access service that is indistinguishable from wireline broadband access from the consumer perspective remains alive, but with a number of not-insignificant hurdles still to be overcome.

This blog is sponsored by Huawei

— Gabriel Brown, Senior Analyst, Heavy Reading