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        FWA Usage Rockets in Australia



        The number of Australians using fixed
        wireless for home broadband has
        almost doubled in the past two years,
        according to new data from the
        country's competition regulator.

        There were more than half a million
        wireless home broadband users in
        Australia at the end of last year, the
        Australian Competition and Con-
        sumer Commission stated in its latest
        annual Internet activity report, pub-
        lished on Thursday.

        That might sound like a fairly small
        number, but it's a reasonable – and
        growing – proportion of the country's
        8.5 million retail broadband Internet
        connections at the same date.

        Specifically, there were 510,000 FWA
        connections provided by mobile
        network operators at end-2023, an
        increase of 47,000 over six months
                                             As the ACCC puts it, "the average   Furthermore, fibre users generally
        and an increase of 73% since the
                                             download per home wireless broad-   have a 'very good' experience with
        regulator started collecting data on
                                             band service has recently become    on-demand video streaming ser-
        the technology in December 2021; at
                                             similar to the average for NBN and   vices, while FWA users are on average
        that point there were 299,000 home
                                             non-NBN fibre services."            looking at 'good.' And while fibre users
        wireless broadband services.
                                                                                 have a stable experience throughout
                                             The regulator's report shows a thriv-  the day, FWA users experience sig-
        Clearly keen to avoid too much FWA
                                             ing FWA market in Australia. However,   nificant congestion-related declines,
        hype, the ACCC notes that while
                                             data from elsewhere paints a slightly   especially in the afternoon.
        growth has been rapid, it is now slow-
                                             different picture, highlighting some of
        ing, but it is worth pointing out that six
                                             the disadvantages of fixed wireless.  In rural areas, fibre users experience
        monthly net adds have hovered at
                                                                                 much the same service as they do in
        around the 50K mark for the entirety
                                             In June analytics company Open-     urban areas, but that is not the case
        of the reporting period, aside from the
                                             signal published its latest findings on   for FWA. In terms of consistent qual-
        second half of 2022 when they came
                                             broadband experience in Australia   ity, the experience gap between fibre
        in at 71,000 (see chart below).
                                             and essentially concluded that FWA   and FWA comes in at 25 percentage
                                             users get a much poorer service than   points, compared with 12 points in
        Interestingly, data usage over those
                                             those on fibre.                     non-rural areas and on video experi-
        FWA services is also growing rapidly.
                                                                                 ence the difference is similar; 12 points
        FWA clocked up an average of 456
                                             "Our users in Australia have, on    compared with six.
        gigabytes per service, per month in
                                             average, a far superior broadband
        this latest report, which represents an
                                             experience when using fibre com-    Essentially, there are various reasons
        increase of 61% over a year. In Decem-
                                             pared to Fixed Wireless Access (FWA),"   why an Australian household might
        ber 2022 FWA services consumed
                                             Opensignal said. It backed up that   choose a FWA service over fibre or
        less than two thirds of the amount of
                                             statement by sharing that 82% of tests   another fixed broadband technol-
        data used by high-speed broadband
                                             on fibre broadband pass its quality   ogy, and the ACCC's data shows
        services provided via the NBN; now
                                             thresholds, compared with just 68%   that many are indeed doing that. But
        the gap has closed significantly, with
                                             for FWA.                            there's a good chance the service will
        NBN services averaging only around
                                                                                 not be as good as a fibre connection.
        9% more usage.
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