Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) delivered over 5G holds the potential to address consumer pain points and provide faster speeds than existing home broadband in much of the UK, analyst company Ovum stated.

In a report on the potential of the technology in the UK market commissioned by operator 3 UK, Ovum principal analyst Dario Talmesio said the benefits of FWA go beyond simply improving consumer speeds.

“Wireless does not require long-term contracts, is faster and cheaper to deploy, and is less of a burden for customers.”

The company reported FWA was “a quicker and more economical way to satisfy a fast-growing demand for data” than the ongoing installation of fibre across the country.

Ovum found 85 per cent of the UK market could viably be addressed by 5G FWA, while deployment costs could be half that of fibre. The savings would, in part, be derived from the technology having fewer logistical hurdles, for example by not having to dig trenches.

UK regulator Ofcom, government agencies and challenger fixed operators regularly bemoan the progress of fibre deployment by BT-owned Openreach in the UK.

Ofcom figures for October 2018 estimated 5 per cent of UK premises had access to full fibre services. This, together with the number of consumers relying on very old copper connections, puts the country behind many developed markets in terms of average home broadband speeds received.