Emerging 5G Fixed Wireless Access to Unlock a New World of Opportunities for Network Service Providers

Atlanta, Georgia Mar 10, 2022 (Issuewire.com) – While 5G has been a buzzword within the global network service provider as the next big opportunity for the mobile wireless, its applications as a fixed wireless access (FWA) solution that can offer a viable alternative to fiber and cable solutions may end up being the most strategic application of this technology for the connected home community. 

According to a recent report by Market Watch, the 5G fixed wireless market is expected to grow at an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 135.5%. 

To better understand how this rapid growth will affect the broadband market, we caught up with Thibaud Lepage, Director of Product Management for 5G FWA at Technicolor Connected Home. 

Here is what he had to say:

5G FWA today is being spurred by the intense competition that has been accelerated by the pandemic and the fact that mobile users have adapted to 5G speeds and reliability. This is shifting user expectations for connectivity across mobile, home, and office environments. 

The technology is emerging as an option to quickly and cheaply deliver an alternative to fiber optics and coaxial cables, which will unlock a whole new world of opportunity for millions of people seeking reliable, fast home connectivity. As a result, 5G FWA provides a service bandwidth capacity comparable to fiber optics while enabling a higher density of users without interference or disruptions. 

Technicolor Connected Home, the worldwide leader in broadband customer premises equipment, continues to be at the forefront of broadband access technologies-from the first DSL modems to the latest super-fast cable and fiber optic home gateways. Our set-top boxes and technologies are in millions of homes worldwide. 

Our initial 4G FWA offering–a collaborative effort with partners such as Qualcomm–was designed to address wireless service provider issues that surround connectivity continuity. 4G proved to be a very good solution for this application when we integrated LTE modems into our gateways. It was a solution that provided instant backup when the terrestrial network failed.

In 2019, we incorporated Qualcomm chipsets to deliver FWA services through 5G. 

Our initial 5G FWA solution has emerged as an excellent complement to–or substitution for–existing 4G LTE technologies. Our solutions enable operators to develop capacity and capabilities beyond their traditional network infrastructure to meet new end-user needs for faster speeds and reliability. 

Many of our network service provider customers are decommissioning xDSL services to be replaced with 5G FWA as a cost-effective and highly reliable solution. This is important because there has been a significant increase in the need for high-speed access in the residential domain. 

As we look to the future, we will see 5G FWA services for homes–especially in areas where fiber networks are not deployed or where the deployment of fiber and cable is too costly based on issues like population density or geographical constraints. 

Pure mobile operators will be able to leverage their initial 5G investments to offer home internet services without the need to lease or rent fixed-line networks from other operators. This flexibility should significantly increase the number of operators in this market. 

To listen to the entire interview with Technicolor Connected Home’s Thibaud Lepage, please visit: https://www.technicolor.com/news/connectedhome/future-trust-tch-5g-ep01