Fixed Wireless Access

November 2022
 Global Status Update
As technology has improved, operators have been turning
to mobile networks to deliver residential and business
broadband services. They are using LTE, LTE-Advanced
and 5G networks to deliver services in locations that are
poorly served, or not served at all, by fixed-line broadband
technologies based on copper, coax or fibre. Some are also
offering mobile-based services as an alternative to fixed-line
broadband technologies.
Wireless residential and business broadband services are
no longer largely limited to older technologies, mobile data
subscriptions associated with mobile phones, dongles
or even MiFi or hot-spot devices. They now include the
use of mobile technology to provide the main broadband
connection. This takes the form of a fixed wireless access
(FWA) service delivered to a mains-powered customer-
premises equipment (CPE) device, which in turn provides
local connectivity to other devices, typically over Wi-Fi.
In a relatively short time, FWA broadband has become a
mainstream service offer.
GSA has been tracking this market to determine the evolving
extent and nature of availability of FWA broadband services
based on LTE or 5G technologies worldwide.
©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association
This report gives a snapshot of our findings. The full data set
is available to GSA members.
Study Methodology
GSA undertook this research by visiting the websites of
mobile and FWA operators worldwide, and reviewing their
mobile, home and business broadband offers. The research
was undertaken in November 2022. It updates a previous
round of research published in June 2022.
Data was collected about services delivered using indoor
and outdoor CPE and focuses on FWA services delivered
using LTE and 5G technologies. It does not include
information about FWA broadband services based on other
technologies such as WiMAX.
Note that when we talk about FWA, we only include services
based on fixed-location mobile CPE, for example, devices
requiring a mains electricity connection. MiFi, hot-spot
and dongle devices are not counted as FWA devices; GSA
categorises those as mobile broadband devices. We also
exclude industrial-grade and large enterprise-grade FWA
services and devices from our analysis, where the solution
is designed for Internet of things (IoT) deployments or for
private networks.
Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 2
FWA Broadband Services Based on LTE and 5G
GSA has identified announced service offers Figure 1. Countries and territories with identified LTE- or 5G-based FWA service offers
for FWA using LTE or 5G from 533 operators
in 186 countries and territories and launched
services from 450 operators in 171 countries
and territories worldwide.

Figure 1 illustrates the status of global

deployment of FWA services based on LTE
or 5G.

FWA broadband based on LTE is already

available worldwide. GSA has identified 430
operators in 168 countries and territories
selling such services based on LTE, a rise of
nine operators from November 2021.

Note that these LTE figures reflect the net

growth of the market and disguise the
Powered by Bing
removal of companies from the count as © Australian Bureau of Sta�s�cs, GeoNames, MSFT, Microso�, Navinfo, Navteq, OpenStreetMap, TomTom

a result of failures and mergers, market

withdrawals (in some cases because of Figure 2. Count of identified LTE- and 5G-based FWA services, by region (excludes soft
the loss of local spectrum rights because launches)

of licence expiry or national spectrum

LTE 5G
restructuring processes), or the removal
140
of FWA products from company websites,
which are often replaced with MiFi and hot- 120
spot products.
100
In addition, of the 228 operators that
had announced 5G launches worldwide 80
until end-October 2022, 94 are marketing
residential or business 5G FWA broadband 60
services, up by more than 129% from 41 in
November 2021. 40

Figure 2 highlights the number of FWA 20

services based on LTE and 5G by region.
0
Europe North America Latin America and Middle East and Asia–Pacific
Caribbean Africa

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 3
The number of operators delivering FWA services using LTE or 5G varies widely by region, as Figures 3 and 4 show. There are more operators
marketing FWA services in Europe than any other region, closely followed by the Middle East and Africa.

An operator’s decision about whether to offer services will depend on various factors: how well covered with fixed-line broadband services the
country or territory is; whether there are many remote regions with little to no broadband availability; whether that operator provides a fixed
network at all and how advanced that network is from a technology perspective; and whether its rivals have introduced a FWA service. Where
one operator introduces such a service, its rivals often quickly follow.

Figure 3. Number of LTE FWA operators by sub-region

Central Asia, 5 Southern Asia, 14

Eastern Asia, 8
South-Eastern Asia, 24 Eastern Europe, 47

Western Asia, 9
Northern Europe, 44
Oceania, 24

Latin America and the Southern Europe, 30

Caribbean, 55

Western Europe, 22

Northern Africa, 15

Northern America, 59

Sub-Saharan Africa, 93
Middle East, 36

Figure 4. Number of 5G FWA operators by sub-region (excludes soft launches)

Southern Asia, 2
Eastern Asia, 7 Eastern Europe, 8

South-Eastern Asia, 3

Oceania, 7

Northern Europe, 21

Latin America and the

Caribbean, 4

Northern America, 8

Southern Europe, 5

Middle East, 14 Western Europe, 10

Sub-Saharan Africa, 5

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Some countries and territories have regional operators as well as national operators. The USA has the most, with a total of 37 operators actively
marketing regional or national LTE-based FWA services, followed by Slovakia and Canada, both of which have numerous regional providers (see
Figure 5). GSA’s research identified far fewer 5G FWA operators actively marketing their services in any given region, with a maximum of four in
any country or territory (see Figure 6).

Figure 5. Number of LTE FWA networks by country or territory

One to three Four to five Five to 10 More than 10

Powered by Bing
© Australian Bureau of Sta�s�cs, GeoNames, MSFT, Microso�, Navinfo, Navteq, OpenStreetMap, TomTom

Figure 6. Countries and territories with 5G FWA networks

Launched Soft launch

Powered by Bing
© Australian Bureau of Sta�s�cs, GeoNames, Microso�, Navinfo, OpenStreetMap, TomTom

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 5
Tariff Structures
Tariffs are being set primarily using data volume as the differentiator between the packages on offer from any given service provider. Over 48%
of LTE FWA services are volume-only-based tariffs, whereas just over 17% of LTE service providers offer speed-only-based tariff structures. Just
12% of service providers offer both.

The difference is less marked with 5G tariff structures, where nearly 19% of service providers promote speed-only-based tariff structures and
23% promote volume-only-based tariff structures. 7% of all service providers offer both volume- and speed-based tariff structures. This picture
has been evolving over the past year, with speed-based tariffs becoming more common for 5G FWA services.

Figure 7 illustrates the tariff models used by operators.

Figure 7. Tariff models used by operators for LTE FWA services (services for which tariff
data was publicly available)
Although many operators promote
5G LTE “unlimited” usage, in fact, the great majority
is restricted: by limiting speed after a
No data certain threshold, by fair use policies, or by
limiting “unlimited” offers to a maximum,
albeit large, data usage level.
Other
GSA identified 104 operators with LTE FWA
services — up seven in six months — and
38 operators with 5G packages being
Both
promoted with tariff package options that
appear truly unlimited — up from 32 in June.

Volume It should be noted that the small print of the

offers was not always available, so this figure
could still be an overestimate.
Speed
Those figures equate to 21.3% of the
operators with LTE services, up from 21% in
0 50 100 150 200 250 June 2021, and 26.5% of the operators with
Count of operators
5G services, down from 27% in June 2021.

Service Portability
Our analysis of LTE and 5G FWA encompasses only mains-connected devices and excludes MiFi and hot-spot device types that are battery-
charged. Nonetheless, some of the devices covered can theoretically enable nomadic usage by plugging and unplugging at different locations.
This is harder for external antennas as many are installed by an engineer, although our research has identified some self-install external
antennas.

Our latest survey looked at whether service providers actively allow users to move their FWA devices between locations. Many operators make
no comment in their marketing literature or publicly available terms and conditions. Nonetheless, GSA identified 18 5G FWA offers positioned
as portable; 51 offers were tied to a specific location and were not permitted to be moved; two offered limited portability; 79 were unspecific.

In relation to the LTE services being marketed, 109, or 22.4%, were positioned as portable, 16 (3.2%) were positioned as partially portable — to
a limited number of locations, or only after a top-up fee — and 165 (33.9%) were limited to a single location. Note that some operators provided
fixed and portable options with separate tariffs and so are counted twice. 213 operators (43.8%) made no comment about portability.

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 6
Service Speeds
Operators are often opaque about the FWA service speeds their LTE and 5G customers should expect. We believe this is because actual
network performance depends on distance from cell towers, speed of movement or local interference — from walls or other physical or
electronic objects — and other factors. Operators often do not provide speed information or are deliberately vague talking about the types of
speed that LTE, LTE-Advanced and 5G can theoretically provide, mentioning the maximum theoretical speed a customer might get (in a perfect
scenario), mentioning speeds measured by third parties or, occasionally, offering average speed information.

Bearing this in mind, GSA collected information about the fastest download speeds quoted by operators for their FWA services where data was
available (see Figure 8). The maximum speeds promoted for LTE FWA services range from 1 Mbps to 2.5 Gbps. The average of the marketed
maximum peak download speeds that GSA identified was 155.2 Mbps, up significantly from 129.7 Mbps in June 2022 (based on maximum speed
data for 317 operators, up from 297 operators identified as promoting their LTE FWA speeds in June 2022).

Figure 8. Marketed maximum download speeds for LTE FWA (317 operators)
Marketed maximum speed
(Mbps)

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0
Unique operators' maximum stated download speeds

For 5G, speed data has become more readily available, with data on 5G FWA maximum download speeds collected from 64 operators
(compared with 36 in June 2021). Quoted peak speeds ranged from 10 Mbps to 5000 Mbps in the downlink, with half of them sitting in the 250
Mbps to 1000 Mbps range (see Figure 9). The average 5G FWA maximum peak download speed identified by GSA is 875.9 Mbps, up from 863
Mbps in June 2022 and from 716 Mbps in November 2021.

Figure 9. Marketed maximum download speeds for 5G FWA services (64 operators)

Marketed maximum speed

(Mbps)
5,000

4,500

4,000

3,500

3,000

2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0
Unique operators' maximum stated download speeds

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 7
As to be expected, where information was made available, the average or typical peak download speed marketed to customers was lower at an
estimated 32.7 Mbps for LTE networks, standing still from June 2022 and 38.5 Mbps at the end of 2020; and just over an estimated 248.3 Mbps
for 5G FWA services, down from 282.6 Mbps in November 2021 and up from 147 Mbps in November 2020. It should be noted that the sample
sizes of operators quoting their average speeds were much smaller than the sample sizes of those quoting maximum speeds, at 37 for LTE and
14 operators for 5G, and that some quoted average ranges (where we used the midpoint in the range).

FWA Devices
GSA has analysed the types of CPE provided by operators to support their FWA services. Outdoor and indoor CPE is available, with the outdoor
CPE often deployed on a wall or roof, whereas indoor CPE can be placed wherever in the residential or business location that the property
occupier can get the best signal. We classified window-mounted devices as indoor devices.

Although outdoor installation may still need Figure 10. Types of FWA CPE offered by operators: base 629 networks (486 LTE and 143 5G)
an engineer visit, indoor CPE is usually
5G LTE
installed by the service user themselves.
This avoids a costly truck roll, making a
big difference to the business case. It also No data
means implementation time is related to the
speed of the postal service — often next
Both
day — rather than the time it takes to get an
engineer to site.
Outdoor only
Data about FWA CPE type was identified for
406 LTE and 84 5G networks (see Figure 10).
Operators are overwhelmingly choosing to Indoor only
offer indoor CPE, with nearly 93% of those
where we could classify the CPE making 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
an indoor CPE choice available. Of all the Count of operators
identified FWA services (LTE or 5G), 75.5%
come with internal CPE only.

Only 24.4% of the networks for which data

Figure 11. Types of LTE FWA CPE offered by vendors, numbers of models per form factor
was available were supported by outdoor
CPE; 6.1% of all identified LTE FWA networks
Outdoor CPE Indoor CPE
only offered outdoor CPE; and 4.1% of all
Number of device
identified 5G FWA networks only offered models
outdoor CPE. This reflects the fact that LTE 600
and 5G FWA are widely positioned as an
500
easy, flexible alternative to fixed broadband,
with no installation and no waiting time. 400

GSA tracks device availability in its GAMBoD

300
database, which now has over 23,000
catalogued LTE and 5G devices. Within 200

that, GSA has identified 784 indoor and

100
outdoor LTE CPE device models suitable for
residential and small or medium business 0
broadband services, shown in Figure 11. 2018 2019 2020 2021 Nov-22

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 8
The market for indoor and outdoor LTE FWA CPE (and excluding industrial-grade CPE) is highly fragmented with 99 vendors selling equipment,
up from 97 identified in June 2022, and no one vendor accounting for more than 6.5% of the model types available. This is shown in Figure 12.

Figure 12. Vendors of commercially available indoor and outdoor LTE FWA CPE, by model count

Maxcomm,
5.97%
Huawei,
5.08% Seowon Intech, 4.70%

BEC Technologies, 3.81%

Shenzhen Tuoshi Network

Communications, 3.81%
MikroTik, 3.30%
Shanghai Zhongmi
Others, 56.60% Communication (Zmtel),
3.18%
SMAWave/Aquila Solution, 3.18%
ZyXEL, 2.79%

Wavetel Technology, 2.76%

ZTE, 2.41% Billion Electric, 2.41%

In addition to the strong LTE FWA growth, GSA has observed growth in the choice of 5G FWA devices in 2022. We are tracking 229 indoor and
outdoor 5G FWA CPE models, with 19 new device models identified so far in 2022 — compared with 50 new device models identified in 20201.

As Figure 13 shows, announced numbers of indoor and outdoor 5G FWA CPE models have grown slowly, by only 9% so far in 2022. GSA also
tracks fixed wireless devices for IoT and private network uses in its GAMBoD database, although they are not included in these figures.

Figure 13. Growth of announced indoor and outdoor 5G FWA device models

Number of devices

250

200

150

100

50

0
4Q18 1Q19 2Q19 3Q19 4Q19 1Q20 2Q20 3Q20 4Q20 1Q21 2Q21 3Q21 4Q21 1Q22 2Q22 3Q22 Nov-22

1
Note that historical 5G FWA device counts have been restated, as GSA has removed from its database announced devices that never made it to market.

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 9
When we look at devices that have made it Figure 14. Types of 5G FWA CPE offered by vendors (announced devices, not all yet
to market, rather than those that have been commercially available)

announced but are still pre-commercial,

GSA has identified at least 133 commercially
available indoor and outdoor 5G FWA CPE
devices. This is a rise from 56 in June 2021,
from 31 in November 2020 and from only
nine in November 2019. Figure 14 conveys Outdoor CPE
the proportions of outdoor and indoor CPE 86

based on 5G FWA.

As in the LTE market, the supply of 5G FWA

Indoor CPE
CPE devices is served by a variety of players. 143
GSA has identified 75 vendors that have now
produced or announced plans to produce
indoor and outdoor 5G FWA CPE. No vendor
accounts for more than a 5.6% share of
announced models (see Figure 15).

These figures clearly demonstrate a strong

ecosystem for 5G FWA and vendors are
quickly positioning themselves to supply this Figure 15. Vendors of indoor and outdoor 5G FWA CPE, by model count (announced
devices, not all yet commercially available)
market.

Maxcomm, 5.2%
Conclusion
Inseego, 4.3%
The promotion of LTE and 5G networks as Shanghai Zhongmi
Communication (Zmtel), 4.3%
a mainstream mechanism for the delivery
ZyXEL, 4.3%
of broadband services to homes and
ZTE, 3.9%
businesses is now established, with lots of
services available from operators, supported Wavetel Technology, 3.4%
Others, 51.6%
by a wide range of devices from many Casa Systems (Netcomm), 3.0%
vendors. Huawei, 3.4%

FWA services are being offered as an Wuhan Da Ta Technologies , 3.0%

alternative or complement to fixed MeiG, 2.6%

broadband; the nature of the message is SMAWave/Aquila Solution, 2.6%
dependent on whether an operator already AsiaTelco (ATEL) , 2.1%
owns a large fixed broadband network it Jaton Technology, 2.1%
ASKEY Computer, 2.1%
wishes to continue to sell.
Hocell, 2.1%

As more operator networks are upgraded to

LTE-Advanced, as more 5G networks are built out and as more (particularly 5G) CPE devices are commercialised, GSA expects the number of
FWA services to rise.

This study will be updated in May 2022. If you would like to share information about new FWA devices, or about FWA service launches, please
let us know at research@gsacom.com.

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 10
Member Annex
The full data set from the global service provider research is available to Associates and Members in Excel format. Please contact Joe Barrett for
more information.

©Copyright 2022 Global mobile Suppliers Association Fixed Wireless Access: Global Status Update | November 2022 | 11
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