FWA Up 19% Year-Over-Year, Continuing to Outpace PON and Cable

According to the Dell’Oro Group, total global revenue for the broadband access equipment market increased to $4.6 B in Q3 up one percent for the quarter and five percent year-over-year. FWA CPE unt shipments saw 19 percent year-over-year growth for the fifth quarter in a row, says the group.

For new customers, FWA continues to shine as a major subscriber growth area forconnecting new subscribers at the last mile.

“Fixed wireless providers in select markets continue to take the lion’s share of new broadband customers, with a wider range of pricing tiers designed to appeal to not only their mobile customers, but also to existing Cable, DSL, and Fiber subscribers,” said Jeff Heynen, Vice President with Dell’Oro Group. “As a result, Fixed Wireless CPE unit shipments posted their fifth consecutive quarter of Y/Y growth, increasing 19 percent,” he explained.

The findings were published in the group's 3Q 2024 Broadband Access and Home Networking quarterly report.

Additional highlights

Total PON equipment spending was up six percent from Q3 2023, driven by an 11 percent increase in spending on PON ONTs. ONT shipments in North America surpassed the 2 M mark for the first time since Q1 2023.

Spending on DOCSIS infrastructure jumped 26 percent uear=over-year, with significant spending increases for both Remote PHY Devices (RPDs) and Virtual CMTS (vCMTS) platforms. Residential Wi-Fi Router shipments were flat year-over-year.

Dell'Oro says 2025 is expected to see a rebound in spending on broadband access equipment, though service providers will continue to take a measured approach to their network expansions, as interest rates are expected to remain relatively high for at least the first half of the year, pushing up the cost of capital.