5G Fixed Wireless Broadband Service Finally Arrives

Verizon launched its long-awaited 5G fixed wireless broadband service, 5G Home, in October 2018. The service will be available in some parts of Houston, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Los Angeles and Sacramento, California. Early users can sign up for the service for the first three months in these markets. After this period, it will cost $50 per month for existing Verizon Wireless customers and $70 per month for non–Verizon Wireless customers. Verizon offers free Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) and installation to 5G Home subscribers. In addition, it offers an Apple TV or a Google Chromecast device and allows customers to access YouTube TV free of charge for the first three months. Verizon promises that 5G Home service users will get typical access speeds of 300 Megabits per Second (Mbps) and a maximum speed of 940 Mbps, depending on the location, with unlimited data access. This service is one of the first services of its kind to hit the market.

Other operators in United States have also been developing 5G fixed wireless access. AT&T is among the major companies working actively on 5G fixed wireless access. Earlier this year, AT&T announced 5G fixed wireless deployment starting from 2018 using mmWave (28 GHz and 39 GHz) bands; however, it changed its plan to push fixed wireless deployment to late 2019 using only the unlicensed Citizens Broadband Radio Services (CBRS) spectrum. The operator has partnered with Samsung Electronics America to supply compliant radios and base station equipment for deployment of 5G-ready CBRS networks. It now plans to deploy Long-Term Evolution (LTE) initially and eventually migrate to 5G to supply broadband service to both home and enterprise users in United States. CBRS spectrum band (3550 MHz to 3700 MHz) is primarily used by government radar systems in the United States.

Fixed wireless broadband service provider Starry launched pre-5G standard fixed wireless broadband using mmWave in Boston, Massachusetts, and Los Angeles in early 2018. It is now expanding to residential properties in New York City. Cable operator Charter Communications has been testing 5G fixed wireless using 3.5 GHz band to expand broadband in rural communities. T-Mobile has also expressed its plan to offer fixed wireless broadband access to 52% of U.S. zip codes if the company’s merger with Sprint is approved. T-Mobile has not specified the spectrum band to be used for 5G fixed wireless deployment; however, it has been urging the FCC to allow 3.5 GHz CBRS spectrum and has been auctioning licenses for mmWave bands.

Although the use of mmWave is helpful in providing large bandwidths, propagation challenges of mmWave would delay the large area coverage in a short time frame. In Verizon’s 5G fixed wireless service, there is coverage limitation due to direct Line-of-Sight (LOS) requirements between the customer’s home and the 5G cell site. This means that not every single household in the same block will be able to access the service if it is not in the LOS. Due to this propagation limitation, operators will need to develop multiple small cells to achieve sufficient coverage to gain enough customer base. mmWave can drive deployment costs higher, especially in less dense areas. Therefore, operators will need to utilize suitable spectrum ranges to meet different deployment scenarios requirements.

While mmWave supports very high capacity, lower bands are suitable for large-area coverage, and midbands are suitable for urban deployment with increased capacity. Deployment speed can be fast by using midbands between 3 GHz to 5 GHz due to better propagation that requires fewer cell sites. Various stakeholders in the U.S. telecom industry have proposed that the FCC finalize rules for CBRS band use. In response, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has recently voted to change the rules on licenses for 3.5 GHz bands to be more accessible for 5G deployments.Canada is also considering both mmWave and 3.5 GHz bands for 5G deployments. Canadian operators Bell and Rogers are testing 5G in mmWave; however, Canada is considering 3.5 GHz band for 5G deployment, too. Even though North America is initially focusing more on the mmWave for 5G, operators in Europe and other regions seem to prefer 3.5 GHz to 3.7 GHz bands for a lower cost of deployment. Finnish operator Elisa, the UK’s Vodafone, the Czech Republic’s O2, and Ooredoo in the Middle East are developing 5G fixed wireless broadband in these bands, while Telefonica and Orange are testing 5G fixed wireless in mmWave.

Fixed wireless broadband deployment for 5G is still in the early days, and the choice of spectrum bands will vary depending on the deployment scenario. Population density, bandwidth demand by users, and spectrum availability are factors to be considered when selecting the right spectrum. The right CPE choice is also important for optimum service quality and return on investment. Outdoor CPE is a better choice for locations that need better signal strength; however, outdoor CPE installation needs greater technical assistance and can lead to high operation costs. The demand for greater capacity broadband access is ever growing with increasing use of video streaming, 4K video, gaming, and augmented reality/virtual reality applications. The bandwidth demand is even higher in developed markets where penetration of these connected devices and bandwidth-hungry applications is high. Fixed wireless broadband access for 5G can be more cost-effective than deploying fiber-to-the-home when the right deployment strategy is used. We expect that initial 5G fixed wireless deployments will be driven by developed markets in Western Europe and North America, where 5G fixed wireless can be used to replace last-mile fiber-optic connectivity.