With the caveat that savings once envisioned for fiber-to-home networks (FiOS) proved to be less than anticipated, Verizon has high hopes for capital investment costs for fixed wireless, much as Google Fiber now apparently envisions.
“I think of 5G initially as, in effect, wireless fiber,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon CEO. “With wireless fiber the so called last mile can be a virtual connection, dramatically changing our cost structure.”
Though some might argue that in many deployments fixed wireless will not offer as many capital investment advantages as some tout, avoiding construction costs likely is the big driver of potential savings.
Network element and cabling costs also should be lower, as there is no access fiber and also no optical network terminal, only a router. Likewise, in-home wiring is avoided.
Much depends on network densification efforts primarily supporting 4G, but those same investments should support 5G deployment as a fixed wireless infrastructure.
To support gigabit per second access speeds, Verizon probably will have to keep radios no further than about 500 yards from any intended customer site, McAdam said. So small cell spacing of about 1,000 meters or so also is likely.
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