More than 50% of the world population is still living without broadband internet and according to Huawei; more than 1.3 billion homes around the world do not yet have broadband internet connectivity. It is believed that fixed wireless access will address this issue of non-connectivity to broadband internet and serve those living in rural and remote regions of the world through the use of fixed wireless access(FWA).FWA is cheaper than fibre internet connectivity, DSL,VSAT.FWA has good ROI and a lower payback period of less than 2 years. These are established business case for FWA. It is also very scalable.
So, what is FWA?
It is the established means of providing internet access to homes and businesses with the use of wireless mobile network technology instead of fixed lines between two fixed points. However, the performance of FWA is lower compared to fibre connection in the sense that is has a lower speed. We are looking at 5G network technology to boost performance of the next generation of FWA. Moreover, 5G FWA will hopefully grow by 84% by 2025 with a worth of over 40USD billion.5G FWA will be cheap and fast internet. The 5G FWA will require customer premise equipment (CPE) at the subscribers’ home or office in order to access the wireless signals from the BTS of mobile network carrier or provider. It is 40% cheaper than fibre-optic internet connectivity.5G FWA performance will be similar to fibre broadband network in terms of data speeds.5G FWA will consume higher frequency band than 4G networks, such as 28Ghz with higher spectrum availability than LTE.
For 5G FWA, let it be noted that there will not be digging up of roads which fibre to the premises (FTTP) needs. It will grow businesses and made them more productive. It will serve urban and remote areas.FWA will bridge the gap in ‘Digital Divides’ in many countries of the world.FWA will create new opportunities for new entrants in the broadband market.FWA will accommodate the rising needs for IoT devices in the homes and business premises.FWA will reduce cost for the high civil work needed in rolling out fixed broadband in large densely populated urban areas around the world.FWA has high throughput and latency. In Nigeria NCC has begin to offer frequency spectrum to mobile network operators for FWA.FWA requires only Base Transmission Station (BTS) and CPE installation, no need of civil work. Although DSL seems cheap, FWA will compete favourably by enabling low latency and high bandwidth. Radio innovative technologies such as MIMO with 3D beam forming aggressively slashes FWA cost by up to 81% when compared to wire line connections. High gain CPE antennas will make FWA have a comparable performance to fibre-optic connectivity, although there may be a cost increase in using high gain CPE. Many mobile network operators are already providing FWA on 4G LTE.
FWA can support VOIP. It is part of a wireless local area network (WLAN).FWA is a point-to-point (PTP) microwave signal transmissions from base station to CPE. It derives its electrical power from mains grid while mobile wireless are battery powered.FWA uses directional radio antenna, which are larger than the ones used in Wi-Fi setups. The antenna has to tolerate different forms of weather and covers signal distance and bandwidths; such antennas should have ability of narrowing the beam and concentrating transmit power to their destination, thereby enhancing reliability and data rejection (eavesdropping).This will make the link to improve on speed. Licensed frequencies for the FWA will also enhance speed and quality of service (QoS).