Fixed Wireless Access Finds Success, but Perception Challenges Remain

B. Washburn

Summary Bullets:

• Cellular wireless services continue to find traction for flexible, value-priced temporary and failover connectivity, as long as the enterprise is comfortable using best-effort broadband.

• Fixed wireless specialists offer a flexible range of microwave access connectivity when wireline options are inadequate or not available, but buyers still frequently lean toward wired.

In the U.S., fixed wireless services have gone through several boom-and-bust publicity cycles. But behind the publicity, wireless technologies are sound and in most cases, delivering on promises. AT&T, Verizon and Sprint don’t disclose the numbers of businesses that have purchased CPE with their respective managed 4G/3G fixed wireless failover services. But the widespread resale of cellular failover services by other providers shows the service option has solid traction. Cost and availability have something to do with that. When a wireless failover service can cost as little as $10-$20 per month as long as it’s idle, that’s a cheap insurance policy. It also helps that 4G networks are now nationwide, and offer better throughput and performance than 3G wireless. But cellular wireless is still best-effort broadband, and not an option for failing over traffic that must have sustained throughput or guaranteed performance.