Last year, fixed wireless represented 90% of the 3.5 million net additional broadband subscriptions in the U.S.
Wireless home broadband is the hottest trend in the telecoms industry, offering customers cheap internet and quick self- installation.
There are two stocks investors should consider when looking at the opportunities with the technology.
T-Mobile US (ticker: TMUS) and Verizon (VZ) Communications have sought to capitalize on the growth in fixed wireless, allowing them to offer home broadband services alongside their mobile services. This means they benefit from the traditional defensive qualities of telecoms stocks while also seizing market share from their cable rivals.
Fixed wireless internet uses radio frequencies rather than cables to provide home broadband access. While maximum internet speeds are generally lower than those achieved via fiber, its big selling point is price—it is generally cheaper.
Last year, fixed wireless represented 90% of the 3.5 million net additional broadband subscriptions in the U.S., according to the Leichtman Research Group. The rate of adoption is impressive—in 2021 fixed wireless additions came to 730,000, accelerating to 3.1 million in 2022.
T-Mobile US, which was a Barron’s stock pick last year, is the leader in fixed wireless among the three major carriers. It is targeting between seven million and eight million subscribers for its fixed wireless broadband by 2025, up from 2.6 million at the end of 2022.
T-Mobile US stock is up 15% over the past 12 months, outperforming an 11% fall in the S&P 500. It trades at around 18 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months, below its five-year average of 31 times according to FactSet.
Verizon has said it expects to have four million to five million subscribers to its fixed wireless service by the end of 2025, from 1.45 million at the end of last year.
Verizon stock is down 27% over the past year, hit by subscriber losses in its mobile consumer segment. It trades at just 7.8 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months according to FactSet.
Rival AT&T (T) is taking a contrasting path, by prioritizing fiber broadband and largely using fixed wireless only as a supplementary solution. AT&T doesn’t share its fixed wireless customer numbers.
“In a lot of densely populated areas, with fixed wireless there’s not enough spectrum to serve customers in the longer term. We believe that fiber is the best medium to serve those customers,” Gordan Mansfield, AT&T’s vice president for global technology planning, told Barron’s recently at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
AT&T stock is up 5.1% over the past 12 months.
The wireless carriers aren’t only competing with each other but also with cable companies such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Charter Communications (CHTR). Fixed wireless is generally cheaper than a fiber connection. T-Mobile offers its home internet service for $50 a month with no annual contract. The median cost of a high-speed internet service in the U.S. last year was $74.99 a month, according to a Consumer Reports study carried out last year.
“Some of those [fixed wireless] offers look pretty attractive and that’s what’s putting pressure particularly on the cable industry in the U.S.,” Kester Mann, director consumer-and-connectivity at consultancy CCS Insight, told Barron’s.
The question investors need to consider is whether fixed wireless is reaching its ceiling—both in terms of customers it can pick off from cable companies and in terms of technological capacity. Wireless networks have a limited amount of data they can process without speeds slowing.
Analysts at UBS said in a recent research note they believe fixed wireless is near its peak rate of additions. However, they don’t expect a substantial drop in numbers of additions before 2024 “at the earliest.” That suggests T-Mobile US and Verizon’s subscriber numbers are set to benefit from their fixed wireless investments for some time yet.
There is also the prospect that advances in technology could extend the headroom for growth. The use of millimeter-wave spectrum—extremely high radio frequencies—allows wireless connections to rival the speed of fiber-optic cable over short distances. Demand for fixed wireless could incentivize operators to install the required equipment in dense, urban areas.
T-Mobile US and Verizon’s fixed wireless success has given them a strong foothold to offer popular bundles of mobile and home broadband. While cable companies are striking back with their own wireless offers, T-Mobile US and Verizon benefit from having their own network infrastructure in which they have already invested, rather than relying on partners, and not having to spend so much on fiber expansion.
At least in the short term, the wireless carriers have won an advantage—which should stand them in good stead in a telecoms industry increasingly converging to try to offer customers all their needs on one network.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com