AT&T management remains vocally cautious on its fixed-wireless access (FWA) service, but the carrier continues to expand availability of a service that it admits is garnering strong interest from small- and mid-sized enterprises.

AT&T this week extended the reach of its Internet Air FWA product to 26 new markets, nearly doubling its market footprint to a total of 59 locations. The new markets include a number of larger metro areas like San Diego, California; San Antonio and Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Indianapolis; Oklahoma City; and Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina.

That’s a substantial coverage increase for the carrier since officially launching commercial services last August.

The coverage expansion should help boost customer growth in the rapidly expanding and increasingly competitive market segment.

FWA connections hit 100 million mark and climbing

Analyst firm Mobile Experts recently reported there were now 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.

AT&T CFO Pascal Desroches during the carrier’s earnings call last week said AT&T was “encouraged” by uptake of its Internet Air service, with the carrier ending 2023 with 93,000 Internet Air customers. That’s about 68,000 new connections added during the fourth quarter of last year.

AT&T rivals T-Mobile US and Verizon, which have both been offering their respective FWA services for several years, each added around 500,000 new FWA customers during the fourth quarter. T-Mobile US ended the year with 4.8 million 5G-powered FWA connections, while Verizon counted 3 million FWA connections.

AT&T CEO John Stankey backed his CFO’s stance, noting the carrier has more modest expectations for its service.

“I don't expect that we are going to be pushing the product in the same way that some others in the market are pushing it today,” Stankey said, just ahead of AT&T announcing its latest market expansion.

Verizon this week highlighted that sentiment by expanding the availability of its rapidly growing 5G-based FWA service through its prepaid Total by Verizon brand. That brand, which is a no-contract service offered directly through Verizon retail location, will begin offering a no-contract FWA service across the carrier’s nationwide footprint.

AT&T FWA enterprise focus

While Stankey is maintaining low expectations for AT&T’s Internet Air service, he did note the carrier will look to expand the service’s reach into the enterprise space.

“There's a lot of small businesses that have usage profiles that fixed wireless is very attractive to. It's something that we will lean into this year,” Stankey said. “You will see it reflected in our performance as we move throughout the year.”

T-Mobile US has expressed similar expectations as it looks to push its FWA service deeper into the lucrative enterprise space. Mishka Dehgan, SVP for strategy, product and solutions engineering at T-Mobile’s Business Group, during an interview at last year’s MWC Las Vegas event highlighted a specific business need.

“Usually what you see with fixed wireless is a nationwide, distributed footprint that the customer wants to light up,” Dehgan said.

AT&T’s Stankey also said the FWA product remains a good “catch product” for locations where the carrier is decommissioning its legacy copper wired services.

“It's a very effective catch product in some of those areas, especially given the density characteristics of what's happened, that we haven't built fiber there yet or we will not build fiber, but it still allows us to meet our obligation back to the customer base and our state franchise agreements,” Stankey said.

Despite those opportunities, Stankey remains cautiously optimistic on AT&T’s ongoing FWA approach.

“I don't think you're ever going to see a scale to the kind of monthly numbers and quarterly numbers you see coming from some of our competitors, but it's a great tool. It's a great opportunity for us to continue to grow,” Stankey added.