Fixed Wireless Access: An Explorative Study of WIMAX FWA and 5G FWA Networks

Driven by the growing demand to provide high speed internet service to household subscribers, especially those in remote rural areas with difficult terrains, where fiber cable is expensive to lay and maintain, fixed wireless access (FWA) is becoming the mainstream internet service proposition. FWA is one of pivotal use cases of the 5G network and a fast selling point in the telecoms market. While 5G FWA is new in the FWA market, WIMAX FWA has been in the business of providing FWA. This paper studies 5G FWA and WIMAX FWA, investigating key features that give one technology an edge over the other. The methodology used for this study was a systematic review of related literature, studying white papers from major telecommunication player and excerpts of interview from experts in the industry. Findings show that while 5G FWA and WIMAX FWA exhibit some technical similarities, 5G FWA has a better user Equipment (UE) ecosystem, and deploys networking slicing needed to meet the download-centric demand of traditional consumer and mobile markets. WiMAX, On the other hand, has an edge within the industrial markets as it securely meets the upload-centric demands of these industries.