Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Fixed Wireless Drives Unusual Market Share Gains in U.S. Home Broadband Market

We have not seen many changes of this sort in the U.S. home broadband market over the last 20 to 25 years. In fact, this might be the clearest change in net account additions over that period, as cable operators have held the advantage in installed base and net additions nearly every year since 1998 or so. 

source: New Street Research, LightReading 


By most estimates, U.S. cable operators have between 65 percent and 70 percent share of the home broadband accounts in recent years, having begun with 10 percent market share in 1995 and growing steadily, reaching parity with telco home broadband about 2006. 



Year

Cable Share (%)

Telco Share (%)

1995

10

90

1996

12

88

1997

14

86

1998

16

84

1999

18

82

2000

20

80

2001

25

75

2002

30

70

2003

35

65

2004

40

60

2005

45

55

2006

50

50

2007

55

45

2008

60

40

2009

65

35

2010

70

30


The shift of market share (net new accounts) in favor of telcos and mobile operators (Verizon and T-Mobile) started after 2020, and was based on the strength of fixed wireless net additions. 


Nobody knows how permanent a change this could be, as fixed wireless generally has appealed to “value” customers buying service no faster than about 100 Mbps to 200 Mbps. That is likely no more than a third of the total market demand. 


Fixed wireless providers obviously have strategies to increase the amount of bandwidth they can supply, over time, by adding more spectrum, adding smaller cells and building additional fiber-to-home facilities. 


Still, many believe the fixed wireless platform, while important, will gradually be limited by the growth of FTTH passings.


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