Page 21 - SAMENA ELITE - Jan-Mar 2024

21

More than 150 operators all and how advanced that network is up 270% from 41 in Nov 2021. 5G FWA
already offer 5G FWA services from a technology perspective; and accounts for 40% of launched 5G
In GSA’s FWA Market reports, the GSA whether its rivals have introduced services, up significantly from 19% in
Research team is collecting data a FWA service. Where one operator Oct 2022.
about services delivered using indoor introduces a FWA home broadband
and outdoor CPE and focuses on FWA service, its rivals often quickly follow. When it comes to tariff structures,
services delivered using 4G LTE and more than 52% of LTE FWA services
5G technologies. In our latest edition Looking at 5G FWA specifically, with are volume-based tariffs, in
of November 2023, 477 operators more than 50% of 5G commercial comparison with just over 19% of LTE
were identified as providing a total operators also offering FWA services, service providers offering speed-
of 587 LTE and 5G FWA services in FWA is the undisputed N°1 use case based tariff structures and just 13.5%
175 countries (up 11% YoY). This is for 5G after mobile broadband. In offering both. The difference is less
expected to keep growing as 678 LTE fact, 192 operators were investing in marked with 5G tariff structures
or 5G FWA services are being invested 5G FWA with 152 operators having where 20% of service providers
in by 554 operators worldwide across already launched 5G FWA services, promote structures based only
on speed and 25% based only on
Figure 1 - Number of operators investing in LTE FWA by sub-region volume. Although many operators
promote “unlimited” usage, in fact,
the great majority is restricted:
by limiting speed after a certain
threshold, by fair use policies, or
by limiting “unlimited” offers to a
maximum, albeit large, level of data
usage. GSA identified 45 operators
with 5G packages being promoted
with tariff package options that
appear truly unlimited.

Operators are often vague when
they talk about the FWA speeds
their customers should expect,
sometimes providing theoretical
maximum speeds. Nonetheless, GSA
collected information about the
fastest download speeds quoted
Source – GSA FWA Market report, November 2023
by operators for their FWA services
187 countries, an increase of 38
Figure 2 - Number of operators investing in 5G FWA by sub-region
from the last update. The number of
operators delivering FWA services
using LTE or 5G varies widely by
region, as Figure 1 and Figure 2 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 to offer FWA
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

Source – GSA FWA Market report, November 2023

SAMENA ELITE