Page 23 - SAMENA ELITE - July-September 2024

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FWA Usage Rockets in Australia

The number of Australians using fixed
wireless for home broadband has
almost doubled in the past two years,
according to new data from the
country's competition regulator.

There were more than half a million
wireless home broadband users in
Australia at the end of last year, the
Australian Competition and Con-
sumer Commission stated in its latest
annual Internet activity report, pub-
lished on Thursday.

That might sound like a fairly small
number, but it's a reasonable – and
growing – proportion of the country's
8.5 million retail broadband Internet
connections at the same date.

Specifically, there were 510,000 FWA
connections provided by mobile
network operators at end-2023, an
increase of 47,000 over six months
As the ACCC puts it, "the average Furthermore, fibre users generally
and an increase of 73% since the
download per home wireless broad- have a 'very good' experience with
regulator started collecting data on
band service has recently become on-demand video streaming ser-
the technology in December 2021; at
similar to the average for NBN and vices, while FWA users are on average
that point there were 299,000 home
non-NBN fibre services." looking at 'good.' And while fibre users
wireless broadband services.
have a stable experience throughout
The regulator's report shows a thriv- the day, FWA users experience sig-
Clearly keen to avoid too much FWA
ing FWA market in Australia. However, nificant congestion-related declines,
hype, the ACCC notes that while
data from elsewhere paints a slightly especially in the afternoon.
growth has been rapid, it is now slow-
different picture, highlighting some of
ing, but it is worth pointing out that six
the disadvantages of fixed wireless. In rural areas, fibre users experience
monthly net adds have hovered at
much the same service as they do in
around the 50K mark for the entirety
In June analytics company Open- urban areas, but that is not the case
of the reporting period, aside from the
signal published its latest findings on for FWA. In terms of consistent qual-
second half of 2022 when they came
broadband experience in Australia ity, the experience gap between fibre
in at 71,000 (see chart below).
and essentially concluded that FWA and FWA comes in at 25 percentage
users get a much poorer service than points, compared with 12 points in
Interestingly, data usage over those
those on fibre. non-rural areas and on video experi-
FWA services is also growing rapidly.
ence the difference is similar; 12 points
FWA clocked up an average of 456
"Our users in Australia have, on compared with six.
gigabytes per service, per month in
average, a far superior broadband
this latest report, which represents an
experience when using fibre com- Essentially, there are various reasons
increase of 61% over a year. In Decem-
pared to Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)," why an Australian household might
ber 2022 FWA services consumed
Opensignal said. It backed up that choose a FWA service over fibre or
less than two thirds of the amount of
statement by sharing that 82% of tests another fixed broadband technol-
data used by high-speed broadband
on fibre broadband pass its quality ogy, and the ACCC's data shows
services provided via the NBN; now
thresholds, compared with just 68% that many are indeed doing that. But
the gap has closed significantly, with
for FWA. there's a good chance the service will
NBN services averaging only around
not be as good as a fibre connection.
9% more usage.
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