The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) – a telecom membership organization focusing on next-gen Wi-Fi and 5G – believes that Wi-Fi is the most effective means to bridge the digital divide in rural areas.

The report, “Rural Wi-Fi Connectivity: Challenges, Use Cases and Case Studies,” looks at best practices to optimize deployment scenarios for internet and cellular service providers – placing particular emphasis on maximizing benefits from newer Wi-Fi technology to enable connection to the new 6 GHz band.

“Wi-Fi enables mobile operators, telcos and other service providers to address a wide variety of existing and potential use cases, giving them a much more versatile and cost-effective technology for expanding their services into rural areas,” the release stated.

The announcement offered two chief use cases including fiber providers using Wi-Fi to extend services in these rural areas over microwave rather than pursuing expensive buildout. “With Wi-Fi 6, the bandwidth over the unlicensed band microwave link will increase and may reach 1 Gbps,” the report stated.

The second case suggested cellular operators tapping into fixed and mobile broadband services with Wi-Fi. The average cost to deploy a cellular tower covering 4,000 people in one square km costs a minimum of 20 times more in capital and operational expenses compared to Wi-Fi, according to the report.

Wi-Fi deployment only rings in at $2,500 for the same service metric including “Wi-Fi equipment, external antennas, solar panel, solar charge controller, battery, outdoor PoE, poles and earthing, cabling, and two years of fiber backhaul subscription cost,” the report stated.

WBA CEO Tiago Rodrigues stated in the release, “Wi-Fi is uniquely positioned to extend voice, video and broadband services to the nearly 1 billion people worldwide in rural areas who have poor or no connectivity. Unlike cellular, Wi-Fi is already included in virtually all smartphones, tablets, laptops, streaming boxes and other devices.”

“This ubiquity also means Wi-Fi has the kind of high-volume low-cost structure that’s critical for ensuring devices and services can be priced low enough to maximize adoption,” he continued.

The report suggestions complimented efforts looking to optimize fiber impact on under-connected areas as well as the MWC Las Vegas keynote panel on the digital divide stressing that while fiber is the best technology for bridging the digital divide, it isn’t the right solution everywhere.