5G Fixed Wireless Access vs The Digital Divide

Just when you thought 5G’s potential couldn’t get any bigger. 5G Fixed Wireless Access is one of the biggest, most exciting opportunities to use (and monetise) emerging 5G tech.

Not only is it opening doors to new connectivity solutions that’ll change how we look at last-mile connectivity—it’s giving the world a way to close the digital divide.

How, you ask? Let’s start with some definitions.

Fixed Wireless Access, or FWA, is a way of providing internet access without needing to smash up roads to lay fibre or cables for broadband.

Instead, FWA uses mobile networks and plug and play hardware to skip lengthy engineering works, and deliver last-mile connectivity to homes and businesses immediately, anywhere—all at a fraction of the cost.

Throw in a public static IP and businesses can set up VPNs, run servers, and keep connected with hosted products. And by using a multi-network service that can connect to all available mobile networks, applications have an extra layer of resiliency should one network go down.

FWA might sound similar to mobile broadband; after all, they both use mobile networks as a convenient and cost-effective wireless alternative to fixed lines.

But there are some key differences under the hood.

Mobile broadband is portable. It uses omnidirectional antennas to connect to the nearest cell tower, and jumps from tower to tower as you move with it. That portability is the important bit: it lets you create moving solutions, like our own connected ambulances.

On the other hand, FWA uses a directional antenna and router to provide really strong wireless broadband at a single location. This means you’ll get way lower latencies and much higher bandwidth than mobile broadband, making it perfect for data hungry setups that aren’t moving around. Like in homes or offices.

FWA deployments are already common for business applications in hard-to-reach rural areas, and developing countries often affected by the digital divide (the gap between those who have access to technology and those who don’t). In these areas, it’s nigh impossible to roll out and maintain the infrastructure needed for fixed-line services. It’s one thing digging up roads in a city; it’s another trying to do it hundreds of miles out into the countryside.

According to Ericsson, 77% of service providers worldwide offer FWA, with adoption doubling in the last three years. And by 2027 FWA will offer broadband to over 800 million people.

But it’s worth considering that while FWA excels in terms of convenience, cost, and accessibility, it can’t always stack up against fibre’s performance.

So while FWA has been instrumental in closing the gap between those who have access to the internet and those who don’t, we now need to consider the quality of their connectivity.

Because patchy, slow, internet is just as bad as no internet.

The new digital divide is all about those who can’t benefit from the internet in the same way others can.

– Job-seekers who can’t do job interviews via Zoom because their connectivity isn’t fast enough.

– Employees who struggle to work from home, compared to a colleague with a fibre connection.

– Remote students who can’t study, research, and collaborate in a way their better-connected classmates can.

– Rural patients who can’t get proper healthcare, because there just isn’t good enough internet access to connect with doctors in cities.

Here’s the thing: Fixed Wireless Access just can’t rival traditional broadband.

But you better believe 5G Fixed Wireless Access can.

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5G not only provides lightning fast speeds: it’s low latency, can connect up to 1 million devices per square kilometre, and is ultra reliable. No more struggling with patchy video and sound on video calls, competing for bandwidth with other devices, or worrying about your downloads being interrupted.

And it’s not just for those dependent on FWA for internet access. 5G FWA will have a knock-on effect on how we think of last-mile connectivity as a whole.

Boosted by 5G technology, FWA can outperform fixed line services. 5G can easily take you to everyday speeds of 100Mbps—compare that to fibre’s 40Mbps, and it’s easy to see why so many businesses are willing to make the switch to 5G for their primary connectivity.

And businesses are already seeing the demand. According to Ericsson, 5G FWA offerings increased by 25% since the end of 2021.