By Claus Hetting, Wi-Fi NOW CEO & Chairman
New 5G FWA and satellite-based Internet services are biting chunks out of US cable and fibre markets. Meanwhile new data reveals that FWA and satellite substantially lag fibre and cable when it comes to home connectivity quality. Ironically, consumers may not need fixed multi-gigabit services but ISPs do need to deliver the right broadband and Wi-Fi quality, reliability, and consistency to all networked devices in all the right places.
New 5G fixed wireless access services by – among others – T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon are taking market share from cable and fibre-based ISPs as triple-play shrinks to single-play. Consumers are churning to 5G FWA or even satellite offerings that are usually much slower but also more affordable with low switching costs. But are such shifts in market dynamics sustainable in the long run?
An obvious strategy for cable and fibre operators would be to claw back market share by offering similarly priced single-play services albeit at a much better level of quality. So would that be the end of the 5G FWA and satellite growth surge? One thing new market dynamics have proven is that broadband is heavily commoditised in the US and that slower speeds are acceptable to consumers if the price is right.
Most households in the US probably don’t need more than 100 Mbps of speed delivered to their homes provided that all of this bandwidth is used effectively to connect Wi-Fi devices – yet speed is far from the only dimension consumers care about. The trail then leads back to the end-to-end quality of service from the broadband connection through to the Wi-Fi device.
This means FWA and satellite ISPs may soon need to step up their game when it comes to delivering a much-improved broadband connection combined with excellent Wi-Fi delivery to all connected devices inside the home. Otherwise their market gains may not be sustainable.
New data from Plume IQ collected from millions of homes across the US shows that FWA and satellite services rank substantially below fixed access when it comes to speed, availability, reliability, and consistency. FWA and satellite download speeds are on average several multiples slower than DOCSIS and fibre. These services also operate at double the downtime compared to fixed access. Now add to this to substantial fluctuations in connectivity speed versus time of day while both fibre and DOCSIS are consistent and stable. It’s not a pretty picture, says Plume IQ.
Conversely, could it be that new multi-gigabit fixed access services on DOCSIS and fibre are hiding the fact that their associated Wi-Fi may not be up to scratch – meaning not very efficient at delivering great connectivity? Despite huge improvements in home broadband (and Wi-Fi) brought on by the covid era, perhaps markets are still learning a key lesson: In the end the things that matter to consumers are quality and reliability of the connectivity delivered to end-user devices. The speed of the signal that reaches your house may not be as important as most ISPs believe.
For data & analysis from Plume IQ click here.
/Claus.
