Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) RAN equipment, residential CPE, and enterprise router and gateway revenue remain on track to advance 7 percent in 2024, driven largely by residential subscriber growth in North America and India, as well as growing branch office connectivity more globally, according to a recently published report by Dell’Oro Group. On top of that FWA equipment revenue has been revised upward by 17 percent for the 2023-2027 period.
“Initially viewed as a way to monetize under-utilized spectrum, FWA has grown to become a major tool for connecting homes and businesses with broadband,” said Jeff Heynen, vice president with the Dell’Oro Group. The popularity of FWA in the U.S. has expanded to mobile operators around the world, he added.
In particular, spending on 4G and 5G-enabled residential equipment is expected to peak at $5.3 billion in 2025, and remain above $4 billion annually.
“Beyond unconnected households, FWA technologies can also address the needs of secondary homes and small businesses,” said Stefan Pongratz, vice president at Dell’Oro Group. “With nearly half of 5G operators supporting 5G FWA, fixed wireless is already a mature technology, boosting both the RAN and the broadband markets.”
U.S. mobile networks have been adding millions of 5G FWA subs since 2021, without adversely affecting the 5G speeds on their mobile networks, according to OpenSignal.
