Opensignal’s latest global analysis on Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) vs. fixed-line broadband highlights that while FWA is emerging as a strong alternative in some markets, it still trails behind fixed-line in overall broadband experience.
Countries like India, the Philippines, Australia, and the United States show only narrow performance gaps between FWA and fixed-line broadband, making FWA a competitive option. The U.S. and India, with 13.4 million and 7.9 million FWA subscribers respectively, are the world’s largest FWA markets.
In contrast, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Canada show the widest experience gaps — around 13.6 to 13.9 percentage points — limiting FWA’s role mainly to bridging coverage gaps or serving cost-sensitive households.
The latest TRAI report indicates that India has FWA subscriber base has reached 8.9 million at the end of August 2025 vs 8.40 million in July 2025. India has 5.27 million FWA subscriptions in urban and 3.63 million in rural areas. The number of fixed or wired broadband subscriber base in India was 44.07 million at the end of August 2025 vs 45.49 million in July 2025.
The Opensignal report stresses that capacity management is key to sustaining FWA growth. Since FWA relies on shared mobile spectrum instead of dedicated last-mile connections, operators must balance bandwidth between fixed and mobile users.
FWA households consume far more data — over 400GB per month in the U.S., and 12 times more than mobile users in India — putting pressure on network resources. The challenges vary by region: urban areas face spectrum congestion, while rural regions struggle with limited backhaul and weak fixed-line infrastructure.
Opensignal’s analysis of congestion impact on broadband performance reveals three distinct global patterns when comparing Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and fixed-line broadband during peak and off-peak hours.
In the U.S. and India, which have the world’s largest FWA subscriber bases, congestion effects are almost identical across both access types. The decline in Consistent Quality (CQ) during peak hours is minimal — -6.9pp for FWA vs. -6.6pp for fixed-line in the U.S., and -8.1pp vs. -9.8pp in India — indicating strong capacity management and network optimization. This places FWA in a “near-parity” position with fixed-line broadband in these markets.
A second group, including Italy and Japan, shows moderate degradation on FWA, with declines ranging from -7.2pp to -10.5pp, compared to smaller drops on fixed-line networks. The results point to congestion caused by shared mobile and broadband resources.
In the U.K. and Canada, FWA remains a niche service, with higher performance drops (-9pp and -10.3pp) versus relatively stable fixed-line networks, underscoring FWA’s limitations under heavy load.
Finally, in developing markets like Indonesia and the Philippines, both FWA and fixed-line networks experience severe congestion, with CQ declines of -18.3pp and -16.6pp, respectively. These findings reflect system-wide capacity constraints, though the similar declines also indicate that FWA remains competitive where fixed infrastructure is limited.
Opensignal’s report finds that the role of Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) varies widely across markets, depending on the maturity and quality of fixed-line broadband infrastructure. While FWA cannot match the performance of fiber or modern cable, its ease of setup, affordability, and flexibility make it an increasingly popular alternative, particularly in regions where fixed-line access is costly, slow to deploy, or limited in reach.
In mature markets, FWA serves as both a competitive disruptor and a niche extender. The United States demonstrates FWA’s disruptive potential, with a small 5.1pp gap from fixed-line performance.
In Q2 2025 alone, U.S. FWA providers added 935,000 subscribers, while major cable operators lost over 400,000 customers. Verizon and T-Mobile now serve over 10 million FWA households, maintaining quality through dynamic capacity management.
Similarly, Italy uses FWA to expand rural coverage, accounting for 13 percent of broadband lines, while Australia employs FWA to diversify broadband offerings amid National Broadband Network (NBN) competition. In Canada, FWA acts as a rural broadband lifeline, with Xplore’s “5G Ultra” delivering high-speed internet across nine provinces.
By contrast, in the U.K., FWA remains a niche service — around 400,000 connections (1 percent of broadband lines) — limited by dense fiber and cable coverage. However, the upcoming mmWave spectrum auction could enable higher-capacity wireless services, improving competitiveness with fiber.
In developing markets, where fixed-line penetration and performance remain weak, FWA often serves as the primary broadband option. In India, FWA’s quality gap versus fixed-line is just -2.9pp, fueling explosive growth — a 15-fold increase year-on-year, with 19 percent market share and 7.4 million Reliance Jio AirFiber subscribers in under a year. Low congestion levels highlight the resilience of India’s infrastructure, positioning it for continued expansion.
The Philippines and Indonesia show mixed results: while the experience gap is narrow, congestion and fiber expansion are constraining FWA growth. The Philippines’ prepaid 4G home Wi-Fi once expanded access but is now losing share as users migrate to fiber, though new 5G FWA plays like DITO aim to reenergize the segment. In Indonesia, despite modest adoption through Telkomsel’s Orbit, severe congestion (-18.3pp CQ drop) limits scalability.
In Saudi Arabia, FWA has become a mainstream broadband technology, driven by aggressive 5G rollout, favorable regulation, and price parity with fiber. Despite a -13.9pp quality gap, one in five broadband lines in the Kingdom now run on FWA — one of the highest global adoption rates.
Overall, the report concludes that FWA’s role is context-driven: it acts as a disruptive challenger in mature markets like the U.S., a complementary solution in semi-developed regions like Italy and Australia, and a primary broadband enabler in developing economies such as India and Saudi Arabia.
Baburajan Kizhakedath
