Last week, I blogged about Verizon's strong quarterly
performance adding fixed wireless subscribers, and this week T-Mobile is
joining the party. Fierce Telecom's Diana Goovaerts reports that T-Mobile added 224,000 fixed
wireless subscribers in Q4 2021. That's even more additions than Verizon posted,
and it brings T-Mobile's total fixed wireless subscribes to 646,000, exceeding
its year-end goal of 500,000.
T-Mobile's C-Suite office noted that the largest portion of its fixed wireless additions are former cable and fiber customers, showing that, so far, fixed wireless is best poised to compete in areas already served by at least one provider. This could change as fixed wireless providers get access to more mid-band spectrum like C-Band, 3.45-3.55 GHz, 2.5 GHz, or other mid-band frequencies auctioned in the future. These bands have the propagation characteristics required for better service quality in presently unserved rural areas.
In any event, more fixed wireless offerings will still add competition in broadband markets. T-Mobile's C-Suite also claimed that price appears to be its main competitive advantage. Fixed wireless services, so far, offer service quality that is inferior but comparable enough to cable and fiber for a handful of price-sensitive customers to switch.
Market-based competition on price
is always welcome.
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