july august | Page 12

Wireless Access or a 5G mobile network ,” he advises .
“ 5G FWA is a key technology to bring good quality connectivity to those in rural areas , but evidence from the US suggests its instant availability , fibre-like speeds and affordability make it competitive with fibre in urban areas , where it ’ s particularly popular amongst the young ,” notes Teresa Cottam , chief analyst , Omnisperience . “ Another key niche is the working-from-home and SME markets - presenting the opportunity for greater uplift in terms of pricing , but also requiring service providers to be able to guarantee service quality backed by premium customer support ,” she adds
“ Situations vary significantly from country to country ,” suggests Gremeau . “ In France , for example , less than 10 per cent of households are concerned by FWA , which is more applicable in countries with lower fibre penetration . The services offered are fundamentally the same , but as FWA access technology could be less capable than fibre , differentiated QoS is even more critical . Also , moving the gateway around the home could enable new Wi-Fi optimisation strategies . In some markets , the gateway could be moved around different homes as subscribers travel , opening second-home monetisation options ,” he notes . “ Further down the road , as sustainability concerns rise , FWA ’ s extra power requirements , compared to fibre , will require us to put more effort into an AIpowered green framework ,” he warns . ADVANCEMENT . “ 5G FWA represents a pivotal advancement in the quest to bridge the digital divide and enhance broadband service quality ,” asserts Cheevers . “ For consumers with lower speed xDSL network or satellite services , it offers an opportunity to get broadband services well in excess of 250Mbps with good latency . 5G FWA can also be competitive in wired network markets appealing to consumers with competitive value for broadband services . As an ‘ instant on ’ solution that can drop ship to a customer
“ 5G FWA brings good quality connectivity to rural areas , but evidence from the US suggests its instant availability , fibre-like speeds and affordability make it competitive with fibre in urban areas .” - Teresa Cottam , Omnisperience
Telenor Sweden closes digital divide with FWA
Despite being an advanced digital economy , Sweden still has a huge ‘ digital klyfta ’ ( digital divide ). This is partly due to the low population density outside major cities , which affects those living in rural areas or using country houses ( stugas ). If not already connected , fibre can be very expensive because homeowners are typically expected to connect from the main road to their home in rural areas .
Telenor Sweden recently introduced 5G FWA to help close the digital divide and enable customers to connect to good quality broadband wherever they live . If fibre isn ’ t available they conduct an automatic pre-check to see if a congestion-free cell is available nearby . If it is , CPE is posted to the customer ’ s home with the customer guided through the self-installation process using technology from Subtonomy . The process is designed to ensure the outdoor unit is correctly aligned to the allocated cell . If it isn ’ t correctly positioned , they are guided through any adjustments via their mobile or they can call customer support for more help .
“ Easy self-installation is vital ,” explains Subtonomy ’ s CEO Andreas Jorbeck “ in order to keep costs down and meet customer expectations . High levels of automation ensure that the onboarding process is quick and straightforward , but also supports efficient resolution of any problems that occur later down the line . This results in a great experience for both the customer and the operator ’ s support and engineering staff .
and has immediate broadband service it devices for both residential and commercial offers a new customer acquisition solution applications . For providers that offer both to Mobile Operators . The key new hardware FWA and wired solutions , the FWA solution design aspects for FWA devices are to improve can be the key customer acquisition solution the overall throughput right to the edge of and then over time move the customer to the 5G cell . For the device itself , this requires a fibre connection as many of the mobile increasing antennae , and also new advanced operators build out their fibre to the home antenna designs that will maximise the overall strategies . The same LAN based home services individual customer experience as well as can persist across a change from FWA to PON customer density in a cell zone ,” he advises . solution . There is a growth in the use of FWA
“ The 5G FWA gateway can run all the same solutions for broadband redundancy services , services as its wired counterparts such as second home solutions where the mobile advanced Wi-Fi 7 , Wi-Fi QoS services , Wi-Fi operator offers flexible plans for redundancy meshing solutions , security , IoT for Smart services and infrequent / temporal use Home and gaming services . The performance services ,” he adds . of 5G FWA on both the downlink and uplink UPGRADE . “ Today , 5G can often deliver a makes it feasible to run highest fidelity video better experience than DSL ,” contends Metin entertainment services as well as video security Taskin , CEO & founder of Airties . “ Telcos solutions using cameras . The processor around the world are looking at two upgrade solutions in the 5G FWA device also support paths : fibre or 5G FWA – and many will choose the future use of Edge AI services with leverage both . For telcos with 5G mobile networks , it of local processing capabilities optimising the lets them penetrate new markets and create hardware use and reducing cost of cloud and new revenue streams for their business . In lowering application latency .” other cases , it is being used as a replacement “ As a solution offering , mobile operators option for aging DSL networks . At Airties , we deploying a 5G FWA gateway can offer both have Smart Wi-Fi software deployments on residential FWA CPE for leading telcos including AT & T and business and T-Mobile US .” customers
“ Of course , the common challenge with a quality both FWA and Wi-Fi is that both wireless connectivity technologies can be variable based on network solution by conditions – which are constantly changing . simply turning So , as FWA deployments grow , it will be even on the device more critical to have smart gateway software with very little that can ensure devices and applications inertia for are optimised to perform their best , based connection . on real-time network conditions . In fact , we Many mobile are actively working on this now as part of a operators use a joint effort with Qualcomm . Together we are FWA solution developing new ways to optimise 5G FWA in conjunction and Home Wi-Fi to simplify CPE product with bundled development and enhance overall QoE ,” he plans of mobile advises .
12 EUROMEDIA