T-Mobile US expanded its fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband service into 32 cities and towns across California, many of which it stated were underserved communities, covering nearly half of all households across the state.

The Home Internet FWA service is now available to more than 6 million homes in California and in excess of 40 million nationwide.

T-Mobile stated its FWA service was bridging the digital divide in California.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) research showed 94 per cent of households in 30 of 58 counties in California have broadband access, but only 46 per cent of those have high-speed internet.

While US cable operators including Charter Communications and Comcast need to deploy full or hybrid fibre in rural areas, T-Mobile deploys mobile towers closer to potential subscribers in rural or underserved areas.

CMO Mike Katz stated residents across California “can get reliable, affordable home broadband”.

The operator’s small print notes Home Internet data rates may be lower during periods of network congestion.

T-Mobile previously forecast it could serve 7 million to 8 million FWA subscribers by 2025.

It launched the service in April 2021 and added 338,000 customers in Q1.

T-Mobile charges $50 per month for the FWA service or $30 per month for families with more than two Magenta MAX lines.

The FWA service delivers download rates of between 33Mb/s and 182Mb/s, and uplink from 6Mb/s to 23Mb/s.