T-Mobile boosts reach of 5G FWA with long-awaited spectrum

T-Mobile US is set to boost its 5G network with more mid-band spectrum that the carrier can use to further extend the reach and scale of its rapidly expanding fixed-wireless access (FWA) service.

The carrier finally gained control of 7,156 spectrum licenses in the 2.5 GHz band, which will provide coverage for more than 80 million people. It had acquired the licenses in late 2022 for $304 million as part of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Auction 108 proceedings. However, those licenses have been held up due to the FCC’s lapsed authority in granting access to licensed spectrum.

T-Mobile said over the next several days it will begin injecting that new spectrum into towers covering approximately 60 million people, with plans to cover the remaining 20 million people as it constructs new towers. The carrier added that the new towers will help expand broadband coverage to rural markets.

That rural expansion was one of the FCC’s main goals in auctioning those licenses. FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel noted at the conclusion of the auction that they provide a “unique opportunity to fill” in current broadband coverage gaps.

That opportunity will fall most heavily on T-Mobile, which won 89% of the licenses up for bid in that auction and is the only nationwide operator currently using the 2.5 GHz band for its 5G network.

T-Mobile has more spectrum for more 5G FWA support
T-Mobile’s deep – and now deeper – 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings are core to its 5G network, providing capacity to support high network speeds and a lot of connections. They’ve also been central to the carrier’s FWA service.

The carrier added 541,000 FWA connections during the last three months of 2023, which was slightly ahead of the first three quarters of the year, and it ended 2023 with 4.8 million FWA connections.

Mike Katz, president of marketing, strategy and products at T-Mobile, told attendees at this week’s Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference that the carrier continues to have a growth target of up to 8 million total FWA connections.

“But even with what we’ve said with our 7 million to 8 million growth target, that still leaves room for us to run in FWA,” Katz said.

T-Mobile has been able to maintain consistent FWA performance over the past year despite the robust connection growth, which highlights its push toward injecting more capacity into the service. Network speed test monitoring firm Ookla late last year reported that T-Mobile’s FWA download speeds were right around 120 Mb/s for all of 2023, despite the carrier adding around 1.6 million new connections over the previous 12 months.

Growth coming from new geographies, cable cutters
Katz this week also said that the carrier was seeing FWA adoption across diverse geographies.

“You see examples of it literally in every corner of the country, in every geography of the country, big cities, small towns,” Katz said. “I would say you’re seeing a little bit more than half coming still in what we would call the top 100 markets. Good growth in the small town, rural areas.”

Katz added that most of that growth is also coming at the expense of customers switching from cable providers. This has been confirmed by cable providers like Charter Communications and Comcast, which have admitted to broadband losses tied to competing 5G-based FWA services.

Analyst firm Mobile Experts recently reported there were more than 100 mobile operators offering some form of 5G-based FWA service, compared to around 60 just two years ago. The research firm also reported that FWA connections surpassed more than 100 million at the end of last year, with that number set to hit 257 million connections by 2028. SDxCentral