Three UK and Ovum reckon 5G FWA is a great idea

Research from Ovum, commissioned by Three UK, has concluded 5G-powered fixed wireless access could replace fixed connections for most UK households.

The report, entitled 5G Wireless Home Broadband: A Credible Alternative to Fixed Broadband, was commissioned to assess the potential of 5G as a substitute to fixed wired broadband in the UK. The bandwidth promised by 5G rivals what is currently available to most UK households via traditional fixed lines and it doesn’t involve digging up the pavements, so what’s not to like?

In fact Ovum anticipates speeds of 80-100 Mbps from FWA, compared to the current fixed-line average of 46 Mbps. Furthermore Ovum reckons 85% of urban punters currently get less than 80 Mbps, so they would receive a boost from 5G FWA.

“Advantages of 5G wireless broadband technology are not just in speed: wireless is more flexible, does not require long-term contracts, is faster and cheaper to deploy and less of a burden for customers – no waiting time, no engineer visits,” said Dario Talmesio of Ovum, who wrote the report. “With low availability of fibre and high cost of deployment, 5G Wireless becomes a viable alternative to fixed-line broadband. While the UK continues its fibre roll-out, this is a quicker and more economical way to satisfy customers’ fast-growing demand for data.”

“5G gives consumers the opportunity to bin their fixed line, enjoy faster speeds and save money,” said Three UK CEO Dave Dyson. “Wireless home broadband means that we can speed up access to super-fast internet services at a lower cost, without installation delays or inflexible contracts.

“The efficient and widespread rollout of superfast broadband across households and businesses is crucial to the growth of our economy. Wireless home broadband de-risks government’s ambitions for a Digital Britain by providing alternatives to a fibre-to-the-home solution.”

Now it should be noted that Three UK doesn’t have a stake in the UK fixed line market and that it’s keen to show something for its £250 million acquisition of UK Broadband, part of the stated reason for which was to offer 5G FWA over the 3.4 GHz spectrum that came with it. Three expects to launch a UK FWA service sometime next year, so it’s fair to say it has a strong commercial interest in bigging up the potential of FWA.