T-Mobile and Verizon are increasing their fixed wireless access (FWA) speeds while adding subscribers to their fixed wireless services, according to a new report from Ookla.
There had been concern that as FWA subscribers grew, there would be additional congestion that would result in slower speeds, but that hasn’t happened.
According to the report, as of the end of 2024 T-Mobile had more than 6.43 million fixed wireless subscribers, with download speeds increasing by more than 50% in the last year to 205.44 Mbps, compared to 134.99 Mbps at the end of 2023.
The carrier, which consistently has the best upload speeds, wants to increase the number of fixed wireless subscribers by 12 million by 2028, the report says. Verizon, meanwhile, wants to increase the number of subscribers by nine million over the same timeframe, up from a previous goal of eight million.
Verizon, which has more than 4.3 million FWA subscribers, saw its median download speed rise more than 12% from 132.55 Mbps at the end of 2023 to 150.47 at the end of last year.
The expected FWA subscriber growth by both carriers shows the continuing popularity of 5G fixed wireless access, which has steadily gained popularity in the U.S. over the past four years. Fixed wireless now has more than 11.5 million combined subscribers among T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T, according to the Ookla report.
The report notes that Verizon has started managing its network capacity by capping its fixed wireless download speeds at 300 Mbps. Customers can get higher speeds by subscribing to Verizon’s top-tier 5G Home Plus — which provides up to 1 Gbps download speeds using the carrier’s 5G Ultra Wideband or mmWave spectrum — or a mid-tier 5G Home Plus plan offering up to 300 Mbps download speeds using the 5G Ultra Wideband spectrum.
Following in the footsteps of the top three carriers, Brightspeed recently launched their own fixed wireless offering built on Verizon’s network.
