Is wireless becoming a valid alternative to fixed broadband?

Are wireless technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX2 closing the gap on fixed broadband? 

A recent blog by The Economist discussed how Long Term Evolution (LTE) is coming to the rescue of one of its US correspondents, located 5km from the DSL cabinet and struggling to get a decent broadband service. 

Peak rates are rarely achieved: the mobile user needs to be very close to a base station and a large spectrum allocation is needed.

Mark Heath, Unwired Insights

The correspondent makes some interesting points: 

• The DSL link offered a download speed of 700kbps at best while Verizon's FiOS passive optical networking (PON) service is not available as an alternative.

• The correspondent upgraded to an LTE handset service that enabled up to eight PCs and laptops to achieve a 15-20x download speed improvement.

The blog suggests that wireless data is becoming fast enough to address users' broadband needs. 

But is LTE broadband now good enough?  Mark Heath, a partner at telecom consultancy, Unwired Insight, is skeptical: "Is the gap between landline and wireless broadband narrowing? I'm not convinced." 

Peak wireless rates, and in particular LTE, may suggest that wireless is now a substitute for fixed. But peak rates are rarely achieved: the mobile user needs to be very close to a base station and a large spectrum allocation is needed. 

"While peak rates on mobile look to be increasing exponentially, average throughput per base station and base station capacities are increasing at a much more modest rate," says Heath. Hence the operator and vendor focus on LTE Advanced, as well as much bigger spectrum allocations and the use of heterogenous networks.

The advantage of landline broadband quality, in contrast, is that it does not suffer the degradation of a busy cell. There is much less disparity between peak rates and sustainable average throughputs with fixed broadband. 

If fixed has advantages, it still requires operators to make the relevant investment, particularly in rural areas. "Wireless is better than nothing in rural areas," says Heath. But the gap between fixed and mobile isn't shrinking as much as peak data rates suggest. 

Yet mobile networks do have a trump card: wide area mobility. With the increasing number of people dependent on smartphones, iPads and devices like the Kindle Fire, an ever increasing value is being placed on mobile broadband.

So if fixed broadband is keeping its edge over wireless, just what future services will drive the need for fixed's higher data rates?

This is a topic to be explored as part of the upcoming next-generation PON feature.

Further reading:

broadbandtrends: The Fixed versus mobile broadband conundrum, click here