Verizon posted strong subscriber growth for its fixed wireless services in Q4 2021, showing the increasing competitiveness of fixed wireless offerings in the home broadband market. This growth also shows the potential for fixed wireless providers to reach rural and other unserved areas as they deploy more mid-band spectrum.
Light Reading Senior Editor Jeff Baumgartner reports that Verizon added 78,000 fixed wireless subscribers last quarter, beating both expectations as well as its previous record quarterly increase of 55,000 (Q3 2021), and bringing its total fixed wireless subscribers to 228,000. Verizon also added more fixed wireless subscribers last quarter than it added in FiOS subscribers (51,000).
Notably, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said new fixed wireless subscribers are generally new Verizon customers and come from areas served by cable and DSL providers. This is direct evidence of fixed wireless competing for home broadband subscriptions in served markets, even if it is so far at a small scale. Broadband customers benefit from this boost to market-based competition.
Free State Foundation Director of
Policy Studies Seth Cooper recently highlighted an Accenture report
about the potential for fixed wireless to boost competition, availability, and
service quality in rural America. That report recommended clearing more
mid-band spectrum in the 3 GHz range to make high speed rural fixed wireless a
widespread reality. We will be looking to see if Verizon's and other fixed
wireless services make a significant play for subscribers in rural and other
unserved areas as the company begins deploying C-Band spectrum and other
mid-band frequencies awarded in future auctions.
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