Wave7 has released its national fixed wireless report. The report, which is an amalgamation of company and media information, shows a vibrant industry segment.
The report found that T-Mobile added 406,000 customers during the second quarter of the year, a drop off from the 500,000 to 600,000 additions from the second quarter of 2022 through the end of last year. According to the report, T-Mobile now has 5.6 million fixed wireless subscribers and reports that churn has been falling.
Verizon added 378,000 fixed wireless customers during the most frequent quarter. The Wave7 report provided a graphic that shows its fixed wireless growth. In the first quarter of 2021, it had a total of 143,000 subscribers. That number has risen to 3.815 million by the end of the second quarter 2024.
AT&T added 139,000 fixed wireless subscribers during the second quarter of 2024. Its Internet Air offering now has 350,000 subscribers.
UScellular added about 10,000 fixed wireless subscribersduring the second quarter and now has about 134,000 subscribers. The growth is flat compared to the previous quarter, and a bit above the 8,000 adds during the fourth quarter of last year.
The Leichtman Research Group, which reportedly is ending its public reports, said that fixed wireless accounted for 104% of the total net of broadband additions in 2023. Wave7 reports that Leichtman compared this percentage to 90% of the net adds in 2022 and only 20% of the net adds in 2021.
The Leichtman Research Group reported net adds or losses by technology in 2022 and 2023: Fixed wireless (3.185 million in 2022 and 3.665 million last year); cable (530,000/65,000 loss) and telcos (180,000 loss/80,000 loss). The total was 3.5 million net adds during both years.
The fixed wireless report also offered insights into satellite internet, citing a mid-August Recon Analytics survey of 1,300 Starlink customers in largely rural areas. The survey showed that those customers reported fewer service outages than cable and DSL customers. Fiber broadband customers had the fewest outages overall.
