FWA and Cable MVNO Services Make More Gains in Early 2024

The reality of cross-platform competition in today's communications marketplace is evidenced by the continued growth of fixed wireless access (FWA) residential broadband services as well as cable wireless mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) services.

On April 25, T-Mobile announced that it added 405,000 FWA subscribers during the first quarter of 2024, bringing its overall FWA subscriber total to over 5 million. Verizon announced that it added 203,000 FWA subscribers during the first quarter, resulting in a total of 3.4 million. AT&T announced that it added 110,000 subscribers to its new FWA service during the first quarter, increasing its total FWA subscriber count to more than 200,000. 

It is reported that T-Mobile set an initial target of having 7-to-8 million FWA subscribers in 2025 and that Verizon has set a target of 4-to-5 million FWA subscribers for next year. Additionally, New Street Research reportedly has predicted that AT&T will be adding approximately 180,000 FWA subscribers per quarter during the remainder of 2024, with potential increases over the quarters that follow. It is reported that there is some difference in outlook among market analysts such as TD Cowen and Moffett Nathanson regarding how much competitive pressure FWA will put on cable broadband in the near term. 

 

Meanwhile, cable broadband providers continue attracting new subscribers to their MVNO offerings. According to an April 26 announcement by Charter Communications, its Spectrum Mobile service added 486,000 subscribers during the first quarter of 2024. At quarter's end, Spectrum Mobile had 8.3 million subscribers. Additionally, Comcast announced that it had gained 289,000 subscribers to Xfinity Mobile, increasing its subscriber total to 6.9 million. 

 

The proper response by the FCC to the growth of FWA and cable MVNO in the communications market should be to emphasize market competition as a safeguard to consumer welfare rather than stringent government regulation. Unfortunately, the Commission took the latter approach on April 25 when it voted 3-2 to subject broadband Internet access services to public utility regulation. The Free State Foundation filed comments and reply comments in the FCC’s Safeguarding and Securing the Open Internet proceeding that opposed public utility regulation.