How Does Fixed Wireless Stack Up Against Fixed Broadband?
Introduction
As broadband access becomes increasingly essential, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) technologies have emerged as alternatives to traditional wireline connections.
At NetMicroscope, we are committed to helping service providers understand how users experience network performance. Increasingly, the latency of the service that users experience is becoming increasingly important. NetMicroscope is at the forefront of measuring and understanding these emerging technologies, and how users experience them across a range of applications.
Over the past year, we performed comparative analysis of FWA performance across multiple providers—T-Mobile, Verizon, and Starlink—contrasted with wireline Comcast services. Using extensive measurements from nationwide deployments in major service provider networks, we've uncovered critical insights into the real-world performance characteristics of these competing technologies and how users experience them.
Findings
Our data is providing important insights into how various technologies translate to user experience.
Fixed wireless performance is more variable. While wireline Comcast connections show distinct performance tiers (around 100 Mbps, 500 Mbps, and 1 Gbps), FWA providers demonstrate more variable performance patterns. Among FWA providers, Starlink offered the most consistent download speeds (averaging around 100 Mbps), while T-Mobile and Verizon show wider performance ranges.
Bimodal Download Speeds. We observed bimodal distributions in Verizon's and T-Mobile's download speed potentially indicating differences in connection technologies (5G vs. 4G LTE).
Fixed-line ISPs offer much lower latency. FWA providers generally exhibit higher and more variable latency than wireline connections. Notably, Starlink shows more predictable latency patterns compared to cellular-based FWA, suggesting that LEO satellite connectivity may offer more consistent service than cellular networks, which are susceptible to localized congestion events.
Fixed-line ISPs offer more consistent latency performance over time. Our analysis also examined performance variations across different times of day and days of week, revealing important patterns in network congestion and quality of service.
NetMicroscope: AI-Powered Network Observability
NetMicroscpe provides critical insights into the current state of network performance. We are particularly well-equipped to measure performance of emerging networks and services, including the performance of emerging dual-queue technologies (L4S), and the performance of applications and services as users see them.
Stay tuned for more updates on how NetMicroscope is helping service providers stay on top of performance problems that directly affect user experience, including AI-driven approaches for diagnosing and fixing service degradations before users become frustrated and switch providers.
We are actively developing products and technologies to explore more detailed aspects of performance predictability, the impact of environmental factors, and evolving technology improvements in the FWA space.