San Jose, California-based EdgeNectar is riding AT&T fiber to power a 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) service that is set to propagate five buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. The move continues a growing push around 5G-based FWA services.

EdgeNectar is using its AT&T fiber deal as part of a strategic partnership with Silicon Valley-based Valuable Real Estate Development to power a 5G-based FWA network in a handful of residential buildings in the area. The real-estate company noted the deal will help “elevate property values and cater to the contemporary resident’s demand for reliable, high-speed connectivity.”

“With the increase in remote work trends, high-speed internet has become a necessity,” Valuable Real Estate Development CEO Carl Wang noted in a statement. “Buildings with 5G can offer the kind of fast, reliable connectivity that remote workers need and [will] be a strong selling point. EdgeNectar’s expertise in developing cutting-edge, 5G technology solutions will enable us to enhance our property values, provide our customers with gigabit broadband, and automated, state-of-the-art property service and operations."

EdgeNectar CEO Ken Zhang explained to SDxCentral in an interview that his company works with AT&T through the carrier’s fiber program. This provides access to a high-speed fiber link from AT&T’s backbone “to the location, but not to the end user.”

“I actually subscribe to a 10-gigabit throughput and then I have four spokes, with each spoke I allocate 2-gigabit in dedicated bandwidth,” Zhang said, adding this dedicated bandwidth can support a company with up to 5,200 employees.

Zhang added that EdgeNectar’s deal with AT&T does not require the company to pay anything upfront, “so basically our commitment to AT&T is actually connectivity to the 10-gigabit port. I need to create traffic in this port, like 4-gigabit throughput, that’s my only commitment to AT&T.”

“I talked to them for in-building and that’s perfect,” Zhang said of his work with AT&T. “For fixed-wireless access they said they support that. The only thing they want me to commit to is the traffic.”

That AT&T fiber connection is then linked to the in-building network where it beams out a wireless signal using the mixed-licensed Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) spectrum. EdgeNectar is working with Google as its spectrum access system (SAS) provider to manage access to the CBRS spectrum.

The 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. An organization can gain access to some of those bands for a limited geographic area using a licensing process managed by a handful of SAS providers.

EdgeNectar’s business model is to then help a building manager to plan out the in-building 5G network, with that building manager paying for the EdgeNectar-provided hardware. This includes radio base station equipment from BTI Wireless, servers that mostly come from Dell, consumer premises equipment and cabling if needed.

Zhang said he also provides the software layer that powers the 5G FWA deployment. This includes the 5G core and analytics layer. EdgeNectar then manages the 5G network, taking a piece of the revenue the building manager generates from the service.

“Basically, the real-estate developer is not too technical. They want me to support and even create the HOA management platform, including a 5G component to overlook the garage and the main building with security cameras,” Zhang said. “He wants to create a high-end building and that's where I come in.”

Zhang said EdgeNectar was also working on adding cellular roaming capabilities that would allow in-building users to tap into AT&T and T-Mobile's mobile network when outside of that location.

“We are refreshing all the old hardware, putting new servers and putting in the latest software. And I think by [the third quarter] we should have all the roaming agreements in place,” Zhang said. “This will be quite unique because we have this capability.”

EdgeNectar’s fiber deal with AT&T runs under that operator’s subdued interest in the FWA space.

AT&T CEO John Stankey told investors during the carrier’s most recent earnings call that it remains focused on “durable” service offerings that provide a solid return on investment.

“There are many businesses that have usage profiles where I believe fixed wireless bundled in with other wireless services is a very durable offer and it will be durable for a long period of time to come,” Stankey said of its FWA plans. “There are certain consumer segments where that’s durable, but it’s not most consumer segments, in my view.”

Those comments aligned with past statements from Stankey calling into question the financial viability of 5G-based FWA services.

“Mobile bits are going to be higher-value bits. They’re going to need to be engineered differently. They should sell at a premium because of the supply-and-demand dynamics on it,” Stankey said during AT&T’s fourth quarter of 2022 earnings call. “And I want to ensure that my mobile network is, in fact, delivering that premium solution on those mobile bets when they need to be provided. And it’s absolutely 100% there to do that.”

AT&T does offer a FWA product and previously stated that it served more than 130,000 FWA customers. The carrier has hinted at plans to refresh that offering, which looks like it’s set to hit the market.

Analyst firms have, to an extent, backed some of AT&T’s fiscal and operational concerns over 5G-based FWA services.

ABI Research predicts 5G-based FWA connections will hit 72 million worldwide by 2027, representing 35% of the total FWA market. However, it added that operators need to use technology advances to manage network quality.

“MNOs [mobile network operators] should launch 5G FWA to utilize their network capacity to make additional revenue,” Fei Liu, 5G and mobile network infrastructure industry analyst at ABI Research, wrote in the report. “However, they need to be vigilant on how many FWA subscribers they can support and which type of service they wish to offer (best effort or QoS [quality of service]). In the long term, MNOs need to apply artificial intelligence (AI) techniques such as machine learning (ML) to evaluate their network resource, network capacity, and spectrum to ensure a steady 5G FWA growth. When the 5G FWA service starts to challenge their network capacity, these MNOs may have to deploy millimeter wave (mmWave) to guarantee the quality of their FWA services and overall network capacity.”

Consulting firm PwC recently released a report that showed FWA services could cost more than 22-times as much as mobile connectivity services. This comes from costs associated with delivering data tied to specific latency or QoS service-level agreements (SLAs).

The report also found that FWA services could have up to 40-times less revenue potential. This is due to FWA services being price limited by competing fiber or cable internet options.

“Most FWA subscribers are willing to pay only as much as wireline plans cost, yet they expect a similar quality of service for internet connectivity,” the report notes.