5G FWA, in layman's terms, is a wireless relay device that converts 5G base station signals into indoor Wi-Fi signals to provide wireless access to offices and homes. Under normal circumstances, the Internet access of office and home devices is based on wired broadband and achieved through Wi-Fi relay devices. Therefore, there is a direct substitution relationship between FWA and broadband.
How big is the market for FWA? In October 2019, the 4G FWA scheme has been deployed across more than 230 networks in more than 120 countries around the world, beginning to serve 100 million households. 4G FWA subscriber growth has been rapid, with 4G FWA subscriber growths exceeding fixed broadband subscriber growth in 2018 (excluding China).
With the development of 5G technology, 5G FWA can provide better user experience, meet the future smart home, 4K, AR/VR and medium and long-term fixed broadband business needs of SMES, and help operators achieve rapid business growth and commercial success through 4G/5G FWA.
According to the report, 5G FWA appears to have a very broad market, but the market described in the report does not include China. In fact, FWA is growing fast in areas where fixed communications infrastructure, such as optical fiber and broadband, is weak, which can be compensated for by wireless access. China's infrastructure, by contrast, is a different story.
In April this year, Wen Ku, director-general of the Information and communications Department under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at a first-quarter press conference on the industry: "China started the broadband China strategy in 2013, which is the first time that broadband networks, like traditional water, electricity and road infrastructure, are positioned as strategic public infrastructure in the new era. China has already built the world's largest fiber optic broadband network and 4G network, with fiber optic users accounting for more than 93% of broadband users."
By the end of April, the three basic telecom companies had 459 million fixed-line broadband Internet subscribers, according to public data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Among them, there were 427 million FTTH/O users, accounting for 93.1% of the total number of fixed Internet broadband users. There were 393 million fixed-line broadband Internet users with access rates of 100Mbps or above, accounting for 85.7% of the total number of users.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, even in remote administrative villages, fiber optic and the coverage of 4G is now more than 98%. Under the background of this huge broadband infrastructure, users can get broadband access very easily. As a result, the Chinese market does not appear to have much of a presence in the FWA report.
Few overseas countries can match China's infrastructure deployment, making FWA a common alternative to broadband. In the United States, for example, Verizon, AT&T and other head carriers have announced that their first foray into 5G will be FWA.
Now that our broadband infrastructure is well established, is there no prospect of future domestic 5G FWA applications? We do not think so, because the wired broadband involves the entry into the home, into the building access problem, must be nodded by the community and building property to enter, thus forming a direct broadband monopoly. 5G FWA may have an important role to play in breaking this monopoly, if not replacing broadband on a large scale.
