5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA)

Fixed 5G – WISPs leading the way

What is 5G?

5G is an exciting new set of standards that will take wireless communications to new heights of speed and low latency.

The new 5G services will sit alongside 3G and 4G services and will therefore use new transmission equipment on new frequency bands. Consumers and businesses will need next generation hardware such as mobile phone to access the new services. Globally 5G will operate on a number of frequency bands, ranging from low-frequency (less than 1 GHz), to EHF (Extremely High Frequency, from 30 GHz to 300 GHz) in time.

Super High Performance & Better Coverage

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) around the world are working hard to purchase additional rights to new frequency bands and to plan their 5G coverage, whilst governments and large organisations are exploring new applications that can be developed to exploit the new higher performance. Working on the basis that 5G will provide basic coverage everywhere and super-high performance in areas with high populations, a range of applications are being targeted around transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture and machine to machine communications. These new applications could help healthcare patients stay out of hospital longer, enable safer driving and self-driving vehicles, track food production and distribution to make food production more efficient and reduce supply-chain costs.

Fixed Wireless Access

The most prominent case for 5G in the first instance however, is Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) broadband, which will speed up the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband to more users and save significant costs compared to installing fibre optic cables.
5G for WISPs

WISPs have been leading the way with FWA Broadband for two decades and are at the forefront of deploying Fixed 5G. WISPs have been using Multi-User MIMO wireless equipment for some years, along with beam-forming antennas, which are completely new to Mobile Network Operators. Indeed, the higher operating frequencies used by the newer, faster 5G equipment is also a staple in the portfolio of most WISPs. Furthermore, as all WISP customers are fixed, there is no need to enable roaming between towers. This simplifies the network build costs for WISPs compared to MNOs, by an order of magnitude.
For WISPs, upgrading their FWA networks to Fixed 5G is a simple, low cost activity, building on existing infrastructure and established technologies.

If you would like to hear more, please contact us for details on how UKWISPA can connect you to your nearest Fixed 5G WISP.