Waves with Wireless Nerd
Join me for a weekly look into what's making waves in tech and the wireless industry! What's new? What's now? What's next?
Waves with Wireless Nerd
The Rise of Fixed Wireless Access? Mobility Field Day #MFD10, PCTel gets Acquired, and glimpse of what's coming up!
What if the wireless industry is on the cusp of monumental changes? This episode is a deep-dive into the latest trends, developments, and controversies shaping the future of wireless. We start off with the recent Mobility Field Day 10, where tech giants like Cisco, Wyebott, and Ventev had the tech world buzzing with their latest news and breakdowns. We also discuss the ongoing advancements in Wi-Fi 7 with announcements from Netgear and Huawei. The conversation gets heated as we turn to the controversial proposal by FirstNet to manage the 4.9 gigahertz public safety band, garnering opposition from other carriers and organizations. Also, we couldn't help but notice the surprising surge in popularity of fixed wireless access services from T-Mobile and Verizon.
Is wireless gaining ground as a go-to solution for businesses connectivity? We unravel the dramatic rise in fixed wireless access (FWA) subscribers, highlighting the impressive numbers from T-Mobile and Verizon who've added a staggering 940,000 new subscribers in Q3. Casting the net wider, we take a look at Comcast's hints to deploy FWA for small to medium businesses and the potential for mergers and acquisitions in the private wireless space. PCTEL's recent acquisition by Amphenol comes up as we highlight the growing importance of wireless solutions in the industry. As we wrap up, we argue the case for wireless-first solutions over traditional wired connections, citing their undeniable cost-effectiveness. Tune in for this and much more.
All right. Well, no time like the present. Let's go ahead and kick off this week's waves. I'm Drew Lintz, the wireless nerd, and today is November 21st. I thought it was the 20th 21st, whatever. Today is November 21st. This is waves. We're gonna talk about what's new, what's now and what's next, what's happening in the wireless industry, and there's some things that are going on, but it just, you know, it's kind of a slow week. We've got Thanksgiving coming up day after tomorrow here in the United States, so not a lot of new breaking, but there is one trend that I've been following. So, instead of really talking about what's new now and next, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna focus on new and now, because there's some announcements that happened this week and there's some talk about things that are going on that I thought was of special interest to those of us in the wireless space. Now, this is dealing with fixed wireless access and with 5G and with some of that, more so than the Wi-Fi space. Wi-fi not a lot going on. This week.
Drew Lentz:We did have Mobility Field Day. Mobility Field Day 10 happened a couple of days ago. It happened out in Silicon Valley and Cisco was a presenter, wybott was a presenter, vintif was a presenter and I think that's it. I know that Niall was supposed to be there but they pulled and they're gonna be coming back, it looks like in May. They're gonna be part of Mobility Field Day, so that'll be fantastic for them. Cisco gave a great presentation. I enjoyed it. I'm biased, that's okay. I thought it was really good, though it's really you know, just as someone who's sitting on the outside looking in my house down here in Texas. It was so much fun to watch the Cisco presentation and see what they're doing and what they're talking about and putting the product managers up there and getting. I guess we had Techie getting Nicholas out there for the first time. That was awesome to have him present. But lots of cool things. You can check out all of the videos if you look up Mobility Field Day 10. Under Tech Field Day the crew over at Gestalt IT, mr Stephen, mr Tom and the whole crew out there. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Mfd was a great one. Can't wait to see who shows up for the next. So that was happening this week.
Drew Lentz:Announcements as far as Wi-Fi 7, more chip sets are coming out. I think it was Netgear Orbis announced consumer Wi-Fi 7 devices they came out. Huawei talked about a 40 gigabit per second Wi-Fi 7 AP, so definitely still some movement in Wi-Fi 7. Nothing ratified yet though, so still too early, I think, to buy some Wi-Fi 7, but definitely some things happening there. Let's see what else we got.
Drew Lentz:Let me jump on real quick and see. I'm gonna get my Twitter on X. I'm gonna see if this thing is showing me live, just in case someone wants to drop a little comment. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It looks like I'm live. Got a viewer too. Fantastic, anyway, hello viewer land. So let's see what else do we have going on? Oh, it still says the wrong date on there, but that's okay, we'll go ahead and update that and fix it. And let's see the next thing that I wanted to talk about, and this is more or less what I've seen happening.
Drew Lentz:First, before I get into that, a 4.9 gigahertz proposal from FirstNet to adopt for the national band manager. So apparently FirstNet's trying to take control of the 4.9 gigahertz public safety band throughout the United States and make themselves the national band manager. And the way that 4.9 gig works. If you don't have any experience with it, it's a slot of space, that's. I believe it's only 50 megahertz wide. That was made specifically for first responders across the United States, and the controlling authority that did some of the channel planning and the coordination between who is using which frequencies and which channels and channel size. That always relied on a local government entity, whether it was a sheriff's department or planning the zoning commission or whoever it was. There was someone that would basically take leadership of 4.9, that's the way it was when it was first introduced.
Drew Lentz:Well now FirstNet saying, hey, we can totally use this spectrum, let us manage it, let us use it. So there's a group called CERC, c-e-r-c-i, founded by T-Mobile, verizon, us Cellular, some other carriers that are involved, the Competitive Carriers Association, national Sheriff's Association, major City Chiefs Association, edison Electric Institute, and they're all saying absolutely not, instead of letting FirstNet manage it, let's let the local organizations be the band managers for the 4.9 gig spectrum. So we'll see what happens with that. It's up there. I don't know who necessarily is going to vote on that. I guess it goes to the FCC to see what happens. But some contention going on there in the 4.9 space. Now, if they expand that spectrum and they provide more access, then that can be pretty cool to see.
Drew Lentz:Anyway. So now that we're talking on the fixed wireless side, this is interesting. The headline the way that I haven't written says imagine that people actually loved fixed wireless. So some new numbers came out this week that were either shocking or not shocking, depending on which side of the industry you're sitting on and what you were interested in seeing.
Drew Lentz:But over the past year, the combination of T-Mobile and Verizon fixed wireless access services this is the stuff that you can buy from T-Mobile or Verizon and you get a self-installed kit shipped to you and you set it down on your desk and you turn it on, you set it by a window if you need to and you power it up in your own line and you can feed your entire house with fixed wireless access, with broadband access into your home In account. Those services accounted for 101% of the approximately 3.6 million net broadband additions. Now this is a big deal in the carrier space. These are people that are adding new lines of service, if you will and line might not be the right word, but it's old school legacy nomenclature, right Running a copper line to the house. So 101% of the new lines for broadband additions went to T-Mobile and Verizon, and that's published in New Report, the Lightman Research Group LRG. T-mobile is now named the fastest growing internet provider in the United States and it's a trend that started to creep up about two years ago and now it's there. So, combined, T-Mobile and Verizon added 940,000 fixed wireless access or 5G home internet subscribers in Q3 of 2023. Almost a million new subs in Q3 of 2023, compared to the top cable companies broadband net ads of 5,000. So 940,000 versus 5,000 in Q3. Big numbers and from the carrier space. That's interesting. Having seen some of that side of it, it's interesting to see how wireless is making that creeping into people's homes.
Drew Lentz:Residential business Now they don't specify if it's residential or business on some of the reporting that was done, I believe, by T-Mobile and Verizon, so you're not really sure. Is it residential, is it business, is it small business? Where is it going? But overall I mean those are some pretty whopping numbers 940,000 versus 5,000 in Q3. So fixed wireless access is taking off. Who knew the people in wireless knew? And it turns out that on a poll, when asked why people? Why people? What they dig about fixed wireless access. They talk about the ease of use of installation and how quickly they can turn it on and turn it off and get it deployed, so that's pretty interesting. So fixed wireless access is definitely making some waves out there, if you will Now in a follow-up article, I was reading some of the quarterly business reports and things that come out and Dave Watson at Comcast said.
Drew Lentz:Watson said that the small to medium business segment is a growth target for wireless. This comes at a time when large teleco such as AT&T and Verizon can emphasize wireless solutions for their business customer base. Interesting Comcast is talking about wireless for small to medium size business. I don't know where that's going to go, but I read that and I thought that would be pretty interesting In terms of wireless. This is a quote here. In terms of wireless, it's an essential part of business services. He said no-transcript Getting that going. He added that it's not a quote major driver yet in overall mobile activity at this point, but we expect that pace to pick up. So it's interesting.
Drew Lentz:You've got numbers that are being posted about subscribers that are that are getting online. You've got fixed wireless access. You know net net ads. Three of you know 940,000 versus 5,000. Nalison, comcast has popped up and they're talking about this stuff. Man, I wonder what comes next RCR wireless, the.
Drew Lentz:You know a trade rag, a nice old magazine that's out there for wireless. It had started to run an article saying that the next, the next cycle here for private wireless, the mergers and acquisitions and partnership cycle is beginning to start. So here you've got people who are trying fixed wireless access. You know the T-Mobile and Verizon are putting it out there, comcast is starting to look at it and now our CR is saying, well, let's start looking at private. You know private equity, mergers and acquisitions, partnership cycles. You know, if I'm in the Wisp space, this is a good time to get acquired. It seems like. Seems like there's some momentum moving in that direction. Don't know if, if, if, there's any, you know truth to that or not, but definitely if you read the news.
Drew Lentz:This week was a special interest to me because I do come from that space and I have a lot of friends who still play in that space. We know anyone that's that's a fan of Wisp and Wisp of Palooza. You know fixed wireless access has been our bread and butter for, you know, 20 years, 30 years. And now all of a sudden, here we go. You know, team, I took T-Mobile and took Verizon popping up with it to to really shut some light on what's going on with FWA. So that's that's pretty interesting to watch. Now I On another note, pctel was acquired by Amphenol.
Drew Lentz:I hadn't even seen that and it popped up on my news feed. It was a deal structured as an all-cast transaction Total consideration of 139.7 million's PCTEL. The reason I bring that up is PCTEL did a lot of antennas in the day in that space, particularly fixed wireless access, so interesting to see them acquired by Amphenol. That's pretty cool. But overall I think this goes back to a couple weeks ago when I was talking about this.
Drew Lentz:You get so many communities there out there that are trying to be fiber-first and fiber-driven and fiber, fiber, fiber and copper, copper, copper, fiber, fiber, fiber. Well, 940,000 new ads for wireless. That tells me that it's working, maybe the way that it should, or maybe the way that people aren't expecting it to. Either way, I think that if you're looking for solutions for your business, for your community, for your campus, for your college, for your municipality, for your county, whatever it is, don't just look at wired connections, don't just look at copper and fiber. That's so expensive, it's expensive to run, it's expensive to maintain, it's expensive to put in the ground and there is a phenomenal place for it. Running to base stations, for example, is a great place for it. But moving to a top-down perspective and looking at mobile-first and looking at wireless-first and understanding what you can do with mobile and wireless while you're waiting to build out the fiber, because, let's face it from a cost perspective, wireless is so much more economical in so many different spaces where you're trying to gain coverage and you're trying to gain capacity. Take a look at wireless-first and I'm glad to see this movement in the space, in the commercial space, because maybe that will echo or have some ripple effects a little bit further down the line for some of the residential stuff. So that seemed interesting to me.
Drew Lentz:I thought that was new and now that's a little bit of what's going on Trouble and open AI land. Lee, if you're not following that, just go look it up. Don't really want to dig into that and that's not my area of expertise, but when you get 505 out of 700 employees signing a petition telling the board to take a hike, that's kind of impactful. So we'll see where that goes. I saw it really funny. I think it was TechCrunch that tweeted out a picture of the group from Silicon Valley and it said this is the new board of directors for open AI. I thought that was pretty funny. Anyway, yeah, that's about it, man. That's what's now, that's what's new. That's what's going on right now. Next up, let's see.
Drew Lentz:I'll be at the MJ BizCon conference next week. If you all know Sean Binder from the days of the internet on Twitter, binder and I will be out there and I'm going to be looking at specifically what's happening in the retail space, in the cannabis space for connectivity, whether it's wireless, whether it's video cameras, whether it's surveillance or places where production is happening or being made. I mean, it's such an interesting market right now and it's just blowing up all over the United States, so I want to be out there. I want to see what's going on with Tech, I want to see how many people are focused on Tech, because I think that that's such a huge space Coming up. In January, the National Retail Federation, the NRF show, is happening right after CES and there's a chance I might be going to that one, and so I would love to see how what's going on in the cannabis industry matches up with what's happening at NRF, because there's two similar markets. It is a retail location, but there's production and manufacturing and all that behind it. So that's what's coming up for me.
Drew Lentz:Other than that we've got Thanksgiving. Nothing really popping in December. January. We've got CES. If you're going to be at CES 2024, drop me a line. Slide into those DMs, come meet up, let's hang out, walk around and nerd out and see where the world of consumer electronics is going. That's a trade show that I go to just for fun. I take days off of work and I fly out to Vegas and I go learn everything that I can about what's going on in the world of nerdery technology and nerdery, because eventually that makes its way here into my house or into your place of business or whatever it is. So I encourage you, if you've never been to CES, take a look at coming out there. See what it would take to get you out there. It's in Vegas, so you can't go wrong.
Drew Lentz:Black Friday sales. I don't really know much about what's going on, but I will give a shout out to Adrian Granados from Intuit Bits Don't miss our Black Friday sales. Save 25% on all of our apps and bundles. Use code blackfriday25 at intuitbitscom and you can save 25% on all the apps and bundles. I just bought one of his apps, again for a different laptop yesterday. So if you aren't familiar with Adrian and Intuit Bits, please take a look at what he has and take advantage of that Black Friday offering.
Drew Lentz:I think that's about it. Let's see, we got what's Now, what's New, what's Next? Those are the shows we're gonna be at, don't forget. Oh, I'm very, I'm happy, I got the results. I saw what came back from WLPC and Phoenix. It looks like my talk was voted in for WLPC and Phoenix also. So I will definitely see you there, especially if I've got some time in the limelight. If you know me, you know how important that is to me.
Drew Lentz:But make sure you make plans to make it out to WLPC in Phoenix. That's WLPC 24. Now let me get you the dates, just so I don't botch it, because I go out there a little bit early. Phoenix, arizona it's the 20th through the 22nd of February. But don't forget, if you're gonna go to the boot camps, you wanna be out there for the pre-conference boot camps, that's they'll start on the 17th. So you're gonna wanna arrive on the 16th of February and then you're gonna hang out and you're gonna stay till the end of the show, which is on the 22nd on Thursday.
Drew Lentz:So make plans to make it out to WLPC. It's I, you know. I talk about it, I feel like on every show, and I guess at this point you know we're in the season for it. So that's that. But please just understand that it's not because they nobody from WLPC pays me to promote or do anything. I just think that if you're in this space, this is definitely something that you should be at. You should make every effort to go out there. You're gonna learn a lot of stuff, you're gonna meet everybody in the industry and the goodie bags are gonna be exceptional, I think. So make it out for that, let's see. That's it. I'm going to sign off. I'm going to go do one last round of grocery shopping.
Drew Lentz:I've got some family coming in, so I hope you have a wonderful holiday this Thanksgiving. I'm thankful for this podcast. You know it took a little bit for me to get out of my shell and do this, but we're a handful of episodes in and it's been very warmly received and I really appreciate that and you can find it. You can listen to this as a podcast, you can watch online, you can interact if you want to, but I'm grateful and thankful that I have the opportunity to do this and that there's people who pay attention to it. So, anyway, that being said, have yourself a wonderful Thanksgiving. Spend some time with family, enjoy it. If you don't celebrate Thanksgiving, that's okay. On Thursday, wake up and think about something you're thankful for. And I will catch you all next week for the next episode of Waves with Wireless Nerd. Have a great week, we'll see ya.
