New promise for fixed wireless, as telecoms incorporate LTE, 5G

Advances in fixed wireless technology could make it a more viable option for helping solve Canada’s rural broadband problem, while marrying fixed wireless with 5G shows promise for connecting city-dwellers, according to the companies deploying the service. Finding a service which will connect underserved areas for lower capital costs than wireline connections “is a big deal,” Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.’s Duncan Stewart told The Wire Report in a phone interview. “There are a lot of Canadians who are relying on mobile only or extremely slow DSL lines.” BCE Inc. is among those who are looking at high-capacity fixed wireless as an option for those areas. It’s using technology from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and branding its upcoming service as “wireless to the home.” In an analyst note, Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Maher Yaghi wrote that, while a full-scale deployment isn’t imminent, it “could be an interesting alternative to for telcos, especially for last-mile connection.” Fixed wireless uses a dedicated wireless network that is transmitted from a central location to non-moving antennas generally installed outside of homes within a certain distance and often requiring a clear line of sight. Currently, most fixed wireless subscribers connect using protocols over unlicensed spectrum like WiFi, according to a survey conducted by Nordicity Corp. on behalf of the Canadian Association of Wireless Internet Services Providers (CanWISP). What’s different about the version of fixed wireless that’s being offered by companies like Bell and Xplornet Communications Inc. is that it’s LTE-based. Since WiFi signals are designed to carry internet data, the technology is capable of delivering speeds Canadians are asking for, but using unlicensed spectrum creates challenges, according to Jonathan Black, executive director of CanWISP. Because consumers can create these networks with off-the-shelf equipment, “you can go set up or own your own network on your hobby farm and start to interfere with wireless internet signals in the area, and there's nothing can do about it,” said Black. There is another protocol standard called 802.16 or WiMAX, but according to the Nordicity survey, it’s being replaced with LTE implementations. But the development of more features for LTE — including new aspects of the upgraded LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) standard like carrier aggregation and advanced antenna technologies like Massive MIMO — means LTE is in a better position to meet rural broadband needs, according to Bell. “It's an evolution of fixed wireless,” said Bell’s vice-president of wireless networks, Bruce Rodin. “More advanced antennas create better spectral efficiency. It means that more customers can connect effectively with the same amount of spectrum that's been deployed today.” LTE-based fixed wireless is totally separate from mobile networks, though Rodin noted network slicing might make that unnecessary in the future. Internet access to rural and remote areas is a perennial challenge in Canada. For instance, Innovation Canada received $4.4 billion in funding requests to build fibre backbone infrastructure for its $500 million Connecting to Innovate program. LTE-based fixed wireless networks that don’t need to compete with the large amount of existing WiFi-based devices do have a spectrum advantage, but are more expensive to implement, said Black, since WiFi bands are free to use but LTE-based services require buying spectrum. Rodin said in a phone interview that in the southern Ontario towns of Orangeville, Feversham and Bethany, commercial fixed wireless trials leveraging LTE-A, 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum alongside new antenna equipment from Huawei meant that customers could expect to stream over-the-top (OTT) services more reliably than before. “This is a solution for connecting rural Canadians” when it comes to the increasing demand for and usage of streaming services, Rodin said. Still, University of Guelph associate professor Helen Hambly told The Wire Report over email that the requirement for fibre will never go away. A service like wireless-to-the-home isn’t directly comparable with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) when it comes to dealing with fast-growing capacity needs as users increase their internet activity, she said, noting that some parts of southwestern Ontario “are definitely experiencing this situation.” Hambly also pointed out that rural fibre infrastructure will still be necessary for supporting Canada’s agriculture sector as it adopts new technologies, like the Internet of Things (IoT). As well, while Rodin said Bell has access to its large fibre network to power its rural backhaul, others without that access must use expensive wireless spectrum, said Xplornet in a written submission to ISED. “If ISED is serious about reducing the cost of service to Canadians, it has the ability to reduce spectrum licence fees for backhaul,” Xplornet said in its submission to ISED's Consultation on the Spectrum Outlook 2018 to 2022. Fixed wireless that leverages licensed spectrum will play a large role in 5G implementations, according to Rodin. And 5G-based fixed wireless could be used not only in rural areas, but provide fibre-like access for urban areas where it’s too expensive to deploy fibre, said Stewart. In its February release, Bell described the technology powering its current offerings as 5G capable, but according to Rodin it’s still transmitting at LTE-speeds. According to a Huawei release in mid-February, Telus Corp. and Huawei tested a 5G fixed wireless modem in a downtown Vancouver “living lab” using 28 GHz spectrum that Huawei said “provides users with a fibre-like experience.” Stewart pointed to Verizon Communications Inc. trials of urban fixed 5G internet, which he said are going better than expected. “I honestly believe it can be a legitimate competitor to wireline internet in urban areas,” he said. — With reporting by Bryson Masse at bmasse@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

New promise for fixed wireless, as telecoms incorporate LTE, 5G

News | March 15, 2018

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