WeLink stays the course amid FWA upheaval

WeLink, a fixed wireless startup, was founded in 2018. Since then, the fixed wireless industry in the US has undergone a dramatic amount of change, with some companies (Starry) falling into bankruptcy, some (Rise Broadband) pivoting to fiber, and others (T-Mobile and Verizon) enjoying spectacular growth.

And how has all that affected WeLink? "We have not changed," Luke Langford, the company's CEO, told Light Reading.

The latest: WeLink will enter the Los Angeles market via new funding from Los Angeles County. Under that newly announced deal, the fixed wireless access (FWA) provider will ultimately cover 275,000 homes and businesses across 68 square miles in the underserved regions of East Los Angeles/Boyle Heights and South Los Angeles.

"We're in expansion mode," Langford said.

Langford said that WeLink was founded by longtime veterans in the fixed wireless space with the goal of using wireless technologies to offer fiber-like Internet services. He said that's still the company's goal – and he said that WeLink's efforts over the past few years have simply reinforced the company's approach to FWA.

Investments and growth

WeLink rose to prominence in 2021 when it received a $185 million investment from Digital Alpha Advisors, an investment firm tied to Cisco.

At the time, the company offered services in Las Vegas and was exploring expansions into Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, with an ultimate goal of reaching 10 US cities.

Today, Langford said WeLink offers FWA services across Vegas and Phoenix, and also in parts of Dallas. Now the company is expanding into its fourth big US market, Los Angeles. Langford said the company currently counts several hundred employees alongside customers "in the five-figure range." He said that range is less than 100,000 and more than 10,000, but he declined to provide specifics. He also declined to discuss WeLink's financial situation.

Langford said WeLink's services are based on technology the company developed internally and recently spun out through a new company called Ketsen. Ketsen is now working to sell the FWA networking equipment in the 60GHz band that forms the basis of WeLink's offerings in Vegas and elsewhere. Langford said Ketsen counts customers beyond WeLink but hasn't publicly named them.

Langford said that, due to the design of WeLink's network and the spectrum the company is using, the fixed wireless operator can offer symmetrical Internet speeds ranging from 500 Mbit/s to 2 Gbit/s. That's much faster than what most FWA providers – from T-Mobile to Starry – currently provide.

Accessing the market

Langford said WeLink is still an "emerging" ISP, but the company has found that its technology can be effective in dense, urban environments as a suitable competitor to cable and fiber Internet offerings. He said that's because WeLink designs its network with inexpensive radio components so that it can work around obstacles such as trees that can often interfere with traditional FWA offerings. He described WeLink's approach as a mix of point-to-point and point-to-multipoint. 

Thus, WeLink differs greatly from FWA companies like Nextlink, which generally operate in rural areas and use lower spectrum bands like 3.5GHz or 5GHz. It's also different from companies like T-Mobile and Verizon, which operate their FWA services alongside their services for smartphones and other devices.

Starry might be the best comparison to WeLink because that FWA company also operates in urban areas with systems in higher, millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum bands. Starry emerged from bankruptcy last year, but has so far kept a relatively low profile.

Langford explained that WeLink is working to learn from the adventures of its competitors. He said the company is working to keep its equipment costs low, and it isn't focusing as much on the apartment buildings that Starry favored.

"I certainly wish them success," Langford said of Starry.

Langford said that WeLink may pursue US government subsidies – including from the Biden administration's $42.5 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program – where appropriate. But he said such funding isn't essential to WeLink's growth plan.

The BEAD program has convinced several FWA providers to add fiber into their operations, given the program's preference for fiber networks. Langford said WeLink will maintain its course as a FWA-only operator.