The fixed wireless access market will generate nearly $20 billion in cumulative equipment revenue from base station access point (AP) and customer premise equipment (CPE) sales over the next six years, according to a fixed wireless market forecast from Mobile Experts.
Annual sales of “dedicated” fixed wireless AP equipment are forecast to grow from $430 million in 2017 to $1.2 billion in 2023. Further, CPE sales revenue is expected to remain around $2.4 billion annually.
Fixed Wireless AP Market Forecast
Mobile Experts says in the report that the overall fixed wireless AP equipment market is forecast to grow at 8% CAGR through 2023, but the “dedicated” LTE fixed segment is expected to grow much more quickly. Large mobile operators, especially those holding large chunks of millimeter wave spectrum, are expected to put their assets to work with 5G fixed service launches in urban settings while they wait for the 5G mobile ecosystem to scale up.
With a high penetration of competitive fiber and cable footprints in developed markets, 5G fixed market penetration will be opportunistic. Mobile Experts projects a much larger adoption of LTE fixed solutions.
“There is a fierce demand for broadband, strengthened by the cord-cutting trend,” said Mobile Experts principal analyst Kyung Mun, in a prepared statement. “This is driving serious growth of fixed wireless AP shipments. Government programs like the CAF II auction in the U.S. are incentivizing operators to build broadband infrastructure in underserved areas with the support of government subsidy. There’s also a strong shift from 802.11-based formats toward 3GPP-based formats such as LTE and 5G NR.”
Mun added: “For smaller players, the 802.11-based proprietary solutions will remain a good alternative. They will remain a workhorse for fixed wireless access in rural markets and will maintain the largest share at the end of the forecast period.”
Image courtesy of flickr user Stefano Brivio.
