In the past ten years, under the strong push of "Broadband China" strategy and "Double Gigabit" strategy, the construction of domestic broadband network has made remarkable achievements.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of October 2022, China had a staggering 547 million broadband users with speeds of 100 megabits or above. The number of gigabit and above broadband users has also exceeded 81.35 million households.
Powerful fiber optic broadband networks not only improve our quality of life, but also enhance our work efficiency. It has laid a solid foundation for the development of domestic digital economy.
Domestic fibre-optic networks have grown rapidly, but the spread of
fibre internet and broadband services remains hugely uneven from a global perspective, creating a worrying digital divide.
According to the incomplete statistics of FTTH/B penetration rate of major countries and regions in the world conducted by European Fiber to the Home Commission in September 2021, only 20 countries or regions had penetration rate of more than 50%, and the top three were UAE (97.0%), Qatar (95.8%) and Mainland China (94.9%). Nineteen countries have penetration rates of less than 10%, including India (3.3%), Italy (9.3%), Germany (6.3%) and the United Kingdom (5.9%). The penetration rate of the United States, a traditional telecommunications powerhouse, is only 21.5 percent.
Why does this happen? The reasons are manifold.
Objectively speaking, the construction of a country's communication infrastructure is closely related to its economic strength, technological level, population distribution, geographical environment and other factors. The reason why our country is doing so well is not only because of our hard work, but also because of our strong policies, capital, human resources and industrial chain.
And for some countries, fiber optics just isn't right for them.
For example, in some foreign areas, the land is vast and the number of users is small. If optical fiber is laid, there are problems of high cost, slow return on investment and even difficult to recover the investment.
There are also some areas, the right of way restrictions, residents opposed to construction, also limited the implementation of fiber optic projects.
There are some cities, belong to the historical and cultural city, cultural relics and monuments, can not be constructed.
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In these scenarios, fiber cannot enter, and the operator must come up with a "Plan B" to meet the user's broadband Internet needs.
FWA is one of the most effective "Plan B".
What exactly is FWA
FWA is Fixed Wireless Access.
As the name implies, it is a combination of fixed-line communication and wireless communication technology, dedicated to providing users with broadband access services.
The principle and architecture of FWA is very simple, which is to provide signal coverage through mobile communication base stations, and then receive the signal at the user's residence or business place through devices such as CPE and convert it into Wi-Fi or wired signal to provide network access capability.
This is a classic "last mile" technique. It works the same way as FTTx, except one is wireless and the other is wired.
The form of service provided by FWA is flexible. In general, a single CPE device can be used to achieve business. Sometimes, In order to better receive and receive base station signals, ODU (OutDoor Unit) will be installed outdoors to cooperate with IDU (In Door Unit) indoors. These are relatively complex FWA systems.
The main application scenario of FWA, as just mentioned, is to provide users with network access in areas where fiber optic cables and other cable lines cannot be laid (for cost reasons, right of way reasons, building protection reasons, etc.).
It avoids the right of way acquisition, pipeline excavation, cable laying, wall perforation and other construction work, greatly simplifies the network opening process, shortens the construction period, but also saves the cost.
Therefore, for many operators, FWA is a means to rapidly grow user scale, and a cost-effective business model.
From the perspective of social significance, FWA can bridge the aforementioned digital divide, help families in economically underdeveloped areas to quickly have Internet connection, enjoy information dividends, and improve the quality of life.
5G - New energy to activate FWA
At this point, you may ask, does FWA apply only to foreign countries? Will FWA be used in China?
Of course it will.
FWA is a technology developed based on cellular communication networks. Its capabilities are closely related to cellular communication technology. Previously, FWA were based on 3G/4G networks, and due to the limited connection rate and capacity, the user experience was not good, which also limited the development.
Now we are in the 5G era. The network performance of 5G is much stronger than 4G, and the bandwidth is 10 to 100 times that of 4G. This means that the capabilities of FWA will be greatly enhanced to bring a better user experience.
5G (IMT-2020) vs4G (IMT-Adv)
In other words, FWA can also be applied to the three major application scenarios of 5G -- enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), high Reliability and low delay communication (uRLLC), and Massive Internet of Things communication (mMTC).
5G active antenna system (AAU) and large scale antenna array (MIMO) technology can realize beamforming, compensate path loss and enhance coverage.
The upstream and downstream decoupling technology of 5G (enhance upstream) can also further improve the coverage distance and meet users' uplink bandwidth requirements.
Currently, most 5G networks are still dominated by the Sub-6 GHz band. If the millimeter wave band (mmWave) is used, the network bandwidth, capacity and delay performance will be further improved, and FWA will provide network capability close to fiber (also known as "near fiber" in the industry).
As capabilities increase, so do application scenarios. In addition to home users, FWA can provide affordable and convenient broadband access to small and micro businesses, shops and temporary locations.
FWA is also able to provide broadband access at key events. Its fast opening speed, low cost, large capacity, can support the staff and visitors during the activity network access needs.