FWA is one of the best services for operators to achieve business success in the 5G era
Since the beginning of 5G commercialization in 2019, more than 50% of the world’s 5G operators have put FWA as one of the main services. FWA subscribers are growing strongly. By the end of 2023, the number of global 5G FWA subscribers exceeded 20 million. It is estimated that this number will reach 300 million by the end of 2029. FWA service has contributed 10% of the total revenue for some pioneer operators.
Looking at the global trends, I see three of the latest industry changes:
- In terms of spectrum, more and more operators can obtain a second or a third large-bandwidth TDD spectrums, providing ultra-large bandwidth capabilities for the wireless networks. Currently, some leading operators, such as du UAE, e& UAE, stc Saudi Arabia, and CMCC, have deployed three TDD carrier aggregation (CA) in a large-scale.
- In terms of terminals, 5.5G CPEs supporting 3CC CA have been marketed, and high-end CPEs which support it have been mass produced including Brovi, MeiG, T&W. The launch of RedCap CPE makes the price of 5G CPE less than US$60. According to the GSA report, the terminal ecosystem is booming. 311 CPE models have been released and more than 212 CPE models have been put into commercial use.
- In terms of user requirements, pure connection requirements are shifting to richer applications, such as AIGC, online education, cloud gaming/cloud storage, and home IoT.
Looking at the Middle East region, 5G was put into commercial use in 2019, which was among the world’s first 5G wave. Operators in the region actively deploy 5G national networks and provision services. Due to their accumulated experience in 4G WTTx, FWA is one of the key services at the beginning of 5G while all GCC operators have put 5G FWA into commercial use. So far, more than 3 million FWA users have been developed, and this contributes to a result that 5G traffic accounts for more than 50% of the total network traffic. Operators are actively exploring applications such as guaranteed high-speed services and FWA B2B private lines, attracting a large number of household and enterprise users. FWA has brought huge business returns to the regional operators.
In the home market, more and more operators are exploring scenario-based packages
Technological progress drives market development. Huawei’s innovative FWA Service Turbo solution works with CPEs to ensure user experience, such as reducing the latency of cloud gaming services and stabilizing the network speed of video services. This solution surpasses the existing home broadband experience boundary, supports operators to develop scenario-based packages, enriches service contents, and increases business revenue.
For example, the home wireless service of a UAE operator provides not only basic packages, but also entertainment packages, and gaming packages. The entertainment packages focus on providing free subscription of video streaming and online shopping applications, and the gaming packages provide free subscription of Xbox games. By guaranteeing service experience in different scenarios, differentiated package services are enabled, improving uses experience and bringing greater business value to operators.
For another example, a Finnish operator provides FWA packages by adding benefits in different scenarios to improve user experience and ARPU. The FWA packages include differentiated Internet access rates, Mesh-Wi-Fi coverage in the whole house, and multiple OTT content bundles. These services help the operator increase the ARPU by 25%.
FWA Brings Broader Market Prospects to Operators
With the evolution from 5G to 5G-Advanced, FWA are bringing wider market prospects to operators. I see three aspects:
- Better experience: FWA can provide a higher-speed bandwidth of 500Mbps to 1Gbps and provide guaranteed user experience through end-to-end experience management solution, which is comparable to that of optical fibers.
- Higher cost-effectiveness: 5G Redcap CPE will attract more consumers and accelerate the migration from 4G WTTx to 5G FWA.
- More connections: In addition to connecting home, FWA also can work for connected vehicles, connected things, and connected industries, providing a larger market space.
Based on the preceding three aspects and market development, FWA use cases, which are widely used and expanded by operators, are B2B private line and its derivative scenario.
In fact, when 5G was put into commercial use in 2019, some GCC operators were the first to pursue use cases innovation. Kuwait and UAE operators started private line services for small- and medium-sized enterprises through 5G network plus a 5G CPE. The fast provisioning and deployment solutions quickly gained market popularity. With more 5G spectrum and upgraded experience management solutions, FWA B2B private lines are further developed, including larger private line bandwidth (from 20 Mbps to 200 Mbps), more provisioning capacity, higher reliability, and lower latency, which enable operators to monetize SLA (Service Level Agreement).
The Middle East is especially at the forefront of the exploration and commercial use of 5G private line derivative scenarios, such as 5G CCTV. Smart oil wells in the hinterland of the desert are the first commercial case. A Kuwait operator used 5G networks, 5G CPEs, and common cameras to quickly deploy and roll out the desert oil well security solution, solving the challenge of high optical fiber deployment costs in the desert. This solution has been widely recognized in the Middle East. As 5G-enabled cameras further reduce costs, the solution will be further simplified and commercially available.
Up to now, 90,000 5G FWA B2B private lines have been developed in the Middle East. We see that operators are seeking to add more ICT services and open new space, such as fixed and mobile private line backup to maximize reliability for industry scenario. The ARPU can be increased by 3 to 5 times on the basis of home broadband.
Conclusion
After five years of development, FWA has proved its strong ability to increase revenue for operators. To continuously obtain new opportunities in FWA development, operators are advised to accelerate the acquisition of new TDD spectrums or re-cultivate existing spectrums, build digital platforms and end-to-end experience management capabilities, and continuously incubate and innovate FWA add-on services.
