T-Mobile US remained aggressive on fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband, expanding its service across 62 cities in the states of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio to ratchet pressure against mobile rivals, cable and satellite ISPs.

While cable operators are ramping broadband speeds through upgrades to DOCSIS 4.0 and expanding fibre coverage, T-Mobile is relying on its 5G infrastructure to place towers closer to potential subscribers in mostly rural areas.

T-Mobile faces stiff competition from cable operators in the three states.

Dell’Oro Group VP of broadband access and home networking Jeff Heynen told Mobile World Live Charter Communications, Comcast, AT&T and Frontier offer competing broadband services across Indiana.

In Kentucky and Ohio, Charter Communications and AT&T are in a number of the same cities added by T-Mobile, he added.

T-Mobile is taking on some of the largest ISPs in the nation with its pricing strategy, charging $50 per month for its Home Internet service with data rates of more than 100Mb/s.

Its FWA service doesn’t have bandwidth caps, equipment charges or require contracts, and new Home Internet customers in the 62 cities are being offered a $50 virtual prepaid card.

T-Mobile is far and away the leader among US mobile operators when it comes to deploying FWA, with 646,000 subscribers at end-2021.

Analyst Jeff Moore, principal at Wave7 Research, previously pegged AT&T’s FWA users at 500,000, with Verizon ending 2021 with 223,000.

While T-Mobile is more bullish on FWA deployments, AT&T and Verizon have focused more on extending the reach of their fibre to better serve 5G, broadband and business verticals.

Following its merger with rival Sprint, T-Mobile claims more than 30 million households are eligible for Home Internet nationwide: the service passes 5 million homes across Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.