Everyone’s talking about 5G (if you want to know what we think of it read this) – meanwhile, what’s going largely unnoticed are the huge strides of advancement being made in good-ol’ fixed wireless access, or FWA. So what’s new on that front, you ask?
We’re glad you asked. It’s actually quite a lot.
Massive MIMO leads the way
The first thing is that massive MIMO is real and here today. Not only is this hiking speed & performance. The leaders in this space are driving down cost per bit in leaps and attacking what used to be the solitary domain of fibre.
Google Fibre also recently seems to have taken a turn towards FWA with the purchase of the Webpass ISP and with new plans for extending Google Fiber wirelessly to American households. All of this is indicative of what we like to call ‘the fixed wireless Renaissance’.
A couple of the companies we like on this front are Mimosa Networks, Cambium Networks, and the antenna tech innovators from RF Elements. And if you include other leaders such as hugely profitable Ubiquiti Networks and mmWave newcomer Siklu, new FWA is a formidable field of promising contenders.
Driving down the cost of access everywhere
The idea of course is to offer gigabit speeds to home and office at a fraction of the cost of laying down fibre – and not least with a much shorter deployment time.
A few big deployments of this type could well shake up the cable markets in a few countries including in the USA and – not least – in emerging markets. In big parts of the world where Internet access is still scare, we’re betting that new FWA could drive down the cost of broadband to below the $5 per month limit, which is where it needs to be to connect the next billion.
Wi-Fi is a critical enabler
So what’s the role of Wi-Fi in all of this? We expect that Wi-Fi will be critical as the last leg for new FWA deployments because it will reach everyone with any kind of device. And unlicensed bands – including 5GHz, mmWave, and TV White Space – will be the zero-cost spectrum used for all of this including the FWA links themselves.
Yo can meet ‘fixed wireless Renaissance’ leaders Mimosa, Cambium, and RF Elements at Wi-Fi NOW in London – and we will also be covering how to build emerging markets Internet access to support $3 dollars a month services with our great team of hands-on experts. Register now here!
/Claus.
I’m seeing lots of these comments on “Fixed Wireless Renaissance”
The telecom operators have had access to many licence free solutions from Cambium , Infinet and Radwin for several years. The cost to connect people has always significantly lower to use wireless. These companies have continued to sell into these environments. So whats the Renaissance ? There has been no scientific, business case or cultural gap in the knowledge as to the benefits of Wireless ?
It seems that lots of new vendors are talking this up. This portal is about business. Can we see press releases to show hard sales numbers that unequivocally lay foundation to these claims ?
I have sold products that were capable of 1.2 GB full duplex and sold them to operators all over the World. I have also sold thousands of Radios PTP and PTMP in licence free and despite all the chat on what the world needs some of those networks that are 300MB per sector at 90 degree all set on a tower N/S/E/W to cover an 8 mile radius (So 4 x 300 = 1.2GB ) ( reality is 240MB x4=960MB) with ballpark 45 users a sector even with contention that set up which is 4 years old is still under utilised and that is in a major city. That is being used for cellular offload.
Talking with the transmission manager of that carrier I was asking him about traffic increases over the network and the impact of the higher use of Video streaming etc. He stated that on national holidays they see a 20% increase when people are filming and uploading at the site of a parade or an event , but they always as in the past delay a portable base station.
I’m a Wireless guy through and through. It is seriously great to see the passion and the new developments. Im also a guy that gets the call when vendors have burned through their cash and their investors want to see if they have any IP worth buying or to see if the company can resurrect. Hype and wishful thinking isn’t going to grow your business. Its sales. If your public narrative to describe the problem your solving isn’t unique then you’re a “me too”. If your telling the world your chipset can squeeze blood out of a stone or your antenna can reach the spirit of Jimmy Hoffa , nobody cares.
The people who will be making the significant purchases in this game that will keep this industry in business is serious Telco and Government. The Google news while all nice to see, is also a story of Big telco connecting people 300 /1 over Google. Google to compete will either buy a Telco or recruit all the best brains to create one. Those people will buy carrier class solutions on behalf of Google. If you want people to change , you need to be better , cheaper and have an amazing SLA .
There are some seriously clever ideas out there guys and some serious lack of focus too. If you want to sell big , start looking industrial. Stop with the crass narratives. If you’re going to announce something , make it real news.