Mobile Experts: T-Mobile fiber growth is a boost to its FWA

More fiber infrastructure could be a boon to T-Mobile’s still-growing fixed wireless access (FWA) business. “T-Mobile’s access to fiber will increase their ability to provide FWA,” said Mobile Experts Principal Joe Madden. Not only is fiber good for the backhaul fixed wireless requires, but T-Mobile can still deploy FWA in cases where it’d be too expensive to run fiber all the way to the home. “It’s the last 100 feet from the curb to the house that creates more than 80% of the cost for a fiber-to-the-home service,” he explained. “So, T-Mobile will be in a good position to bring fiber close to the home and then use FWA for the unpredictable and expensive part.” Much of the cost to deploy fiber is associated with the issues that come up when digging trenches on the customer’s property, Madden said. Further, underground fiber can cost more than twice as much as aerial fiber.