Charter Communications has thousands of radio access network (RAN) antennas active in a test market, with plans to expand the reach of its owned network this year. That initiative comes as the cable service provider continues to battle 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) services from mobile network operators (MNOs).

Charter CEO Chris Winfrey told investors during the cable provider’s latest earnings call that “we are fully deployed and active with thousands of radio access networks out on the strand and MDUs [multi-dwelling units] in one large market today, and we're expanding into another market at some point this year. And that's going very well.”

Charter’s cellular network runs on Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. The company paid $464 million for 210 CBRS spectrum licenses focused on its cable footprint across parts of 36 states.

CBRS spectrum is a swath of around 150 megahertz in the 3.5 GHz band that the federal government has set aside for licensed use. Access to that spectrum is through a multitiered access program that includes tier-one incumbents with “protected status,” including the Department of Defense (DoD) for use by Navy ship radars and registered fixed satellite receiving stations; a tier two for “priority access licenses” (PALs); and tier three for “general authorized” (GAA) channels. Charter’s licenses are of the PAL variety.

Charter struck a deal with Nokia last year for the vendor to provide its AirScale platform running on CBRS spectrum to support 5G connectivity for Charter's Spectrum Mobile service. This equipment includes Nokia’s 5G RAN products, which have CBRS strand-mounted radios, baseband units and Nokia’s new 5G CBRS Strand Mount Small Cells All-in-One portfolio.

These strand devices are radio antennas and transmitters that can attach to a cable provider’s already-installed wires, which are often deployed along telephone poles.

Charter currently serves approximately 7.7 million mobile customers using a mix of WIFI connections and a mobile virtual network operator (mobile virtual network operator (MVNO)) agreement with Verizon. That agreement was part of a broader deal cable companies struck with Verizon that involved the cable providers selling spectrum to Verizon and then scoring a roaming deal that allowed those cable providers to offer mobile services running on Verizon’s network.

Charter management has said the move to deploy its own 5G network will allow it to migrate customers, traffic and the resulting cost it has to pay to Verizon to allow its 7.7 million customers to roam onto Verizon’s network.

Winfrey said Charter’s expansion plans are dictated by its ongoing MVNO relationship with Verizon, which he said is “good and strong,” and the ongoing financial return of its continued investment.

“The economics are great, and this is an ROI-based deployment,” Winfrey said of Charter’s wireless network investment. “So, it'll be there – the returns will be there when we deploy. But interestingly, the more penetrated we become, the more attractive the returns get. And so, from a deployment of capital perspective, CBRS is very exciting. It's a very clear mathematical return.”

That mathematical return is an important metric for Charter as it’s also continuing to battle Verizon and other MNOs for broadband customers.

Winfrey admitted during the call that FWA services from those wireless carriers have eaten into Charter’s broadband growth, but he continues to dismiss the long-term impact of these 5G-based FWA services.

The nation’s three largest wireless carriers – Verizon, T-Mobile US and AT&T – added more than 1 million new FWA connections combined during the final three months of last year. Charter, by comparison, lost 61,000 wired broadband customers during the same time period.

“We continue to believe the impact from fixed wireless is temporary,” Winfrey said. “Our internet product is faster and more reliable. Our pricing is lower when similarly bundled with mobile. Customer bandwidth needs continue to increase. And MNOs will face capacity challenges and will be required to allocate their spectrum and capital to maintain profitable mobile services. While we can't promise when that happens, I believe bandwidth needs to increase and quality and value win.”

Analyst firm Mobile Experts recently reported there were more than 100 mobile operators offering some form of 5G-based FWA service, compared to around 60 just two years ago. The research firm also reported that FWA connections surpassed more than 100 million at the end of last year, with that number set to hit 257 million connections by 2028.