5G FWA Could Serve Half of U.S. Rural Households, New Study Finds

 By J. Sharpe Smith Inside Towers Technology Editor The push to provide broadband to rural areas may have inadvertently turned into a competition between fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) and fixed wireless access (FWA). The wireless industry, determined to get its share of the broadband funding in the trillion-dollar Biden infrastructure legislation, made sure that data speeds in the measure would accommodate wireless, as well as wireline, technologies.

Although the legislation is now passed and signed into law, the wireless industry continues to stoke the influence machine with the publishing of a report titled “5G Fixed Wireless Broadband: Helping Close the Digital Divide in Rural America.” Carriers could serve 8.4 million rural households with high-speed FWA or about half of the market, according to a study by Accenture. The study was commissioned by CTIA, the wireless industry association. Continue Reading