Verizon continued to see robust fixed-wireless access (FWA) growth during the first quarter and expects that growth to continue as it layers in additional spectrum assets to support its 5G network.

Verizon added 393,000 new FWA customers during the quarter, pushing its total customer base to 1.9 million customers. That growth surpassed what it added the previous quarter and continues to support announced plans for five million FWA customers by 2025.

CEO Hans Vestberg during the earnings call repeatedly said the carrier remains confident in its spectrum position and ability to support continued growth of its FWA service. This is mostly on the back of Verizon’s extensive C-band spectrum holdings, which power its 5G service covering more than 200 million potential customers.

Verizon is currently using an average of 60-megahertz of C-band spectrum for its 5G network, though it acquired an average of 160-megahertz of spectrum across the country.

“It’s an enormous difference when it comes from 60 to 160 megahertz,” Vestberg said of the capacity question, adding the carrier is also deploying new software into its network that will allow it to support more 5G-based FWA customers.

Verizon and other U.S. operators are set to gain further access to those spectrum assets after filing plans with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding power limitations near airports and military bases.

Verizon’s FWA growth turns the spotlight now toward rival T-Mobile US, which is also aggressively targeting that 5G opportunity. T-Mobile US exited 2022 with 2.6 million FWA customers and plans to continue pushing growth on the back of its 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings.

AT&T remains more subdued with its FWA efforts, though that could be starting to change.

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.

LightReading’s Mike Dano recently found an AT&T website touting an “Internet Air” fixed-wireless service. The carrier has not yet announced an official launch of the service.

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 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). 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.