Consumers have spoken: there is no doubt fixed wireless is a reasonable alternative for many. 532,000 of the 1,065,000 of broadband net additions in the first quarter were wireless, according to Bruce Leichtman, whose work has proven reliable.
At my apartment, T-Mobile wireless is faster than cable on the upstream, fine on the downstream, and $20 cheaper. I'd happily switch. Reporter Eli Blumental was able to try both Verizon and T-Mobile and found them to be reasonable choices, although still shaking out the system. He tested one service at 465 Mbps down and 445 Mbps up. (Illustration)
T-Mobile has now reached 1 million FWA subs after adding 338,000 in Q1. It is just getting started, with service only available in about a third of the country, Target is 8 million by 2025.
Diana Goovaerts reports, "Verizon scooped up 194,000 fixed wireless customers in the first quarter, leaving it with total broadband net additions of 229,000. CFO Matt Ellis said on the call this figure was the 'highest net adds in over a decade'"
The 532,000 FWA is about the same number as the combined adds of cable and fiber. That's way down from last year despite $billions in subsidies.
|
Cable Companies |
|||
|
Comcast |
32,163,000 |
262,000 |
|
|
Charter |
30,274,000 |
185,000 |
|
|
Cox* |
5,560,000 |
30,000 |
|
|
Altice** |
4,373,200 |
(13,000) |
|
|
Mediacom* |
1,468,000 |
5,000 |
|
|
Cable One** |
1,057,000 |
11,000 |
|
|
Breezeline** |
719,608 |
2,830 |
|
|
Total Top Cable |
75,614,808 |
482,830 |
|
|
Wireline Phone Companies |
|||
|
AT&T |
15,533,000 |
29,000 |
|
|
Verizon |
7,400,000 |
35,000 |
|
|
Lumen |
4,470,000 |
(49,000) |
|
|
Frontier |
2,819,000 |
20,000 |
|
|
Windstream |
1,176,000 |
11,300 |
|
|
TDS^ |
495,200 |
4,900 |
|
|
Consolidated |
380,150 |
(850) |
|
|
Total Top Wireline Phone |
32,273,350 |
50,350 |
|
|
Fixed Wireless Services |
|||
|
T-Mobile |
984,000 |
338,000 |
|
|
Verizon |
433,000 |
194,000 |
|
|
Total Top Fixed Wireless |
1,417,000 |
532,000 |
|
|
Total Top Broadband |
109,305,158 |
1,065,180 |