The domestic 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) market continues to show robust growth opportunities, but the revenue-generating focus of those 5G FWA deployments is quickly shifting to enterprise customers.

UScellular CEO Laurent Therivel during a keynote at this week’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) Las Vegas event explained the situation as a “capacity conundrum.” This is based on the fact that while carriers have been able to charge around 30% more for each 5G FWA connection than a traditional smartphone connection, those 5G FWA customers are using 20-times more network capacity.

“So when you look at revenue-per-gigabyte, the fixed-wireless product produces 15-times less revenue per gig than the mobile product,” Therivel said.

Therivel noted that the most obvious answer is to just raise 5G FWA pricing. However, “this is an incredibly competitive market. I'm not just competing against T-Mobile, and AT&T, and Verizon, I'm also competing against cable players … so simply raising prices to create more revenue is not an option for us.”

Instead, Therivel said the real answer is a more focused targeting of the enterprise space.

“The interesting thing about enterprises is they actually use a lot less data than consumers do,” Therivel said. “Kudos to all of you. You're probably still watching YouTube and TikTok when you're at work, but you're not watching quite as much YouTube and TikTok as your kids do at home, and so your usage is 50% that of a consumer household.”

Therivel said that this imbalance has supported UScellular’s ability to target its FWA offerings at the enterprise space.

“It's a huge opportunity for us to continue to grow and do so in a way that uses less data,” Therivel said.

That opportunity has gained momentum by offering 5G-based FWA connectivity to enterprises as a backup to traditional wired connectivity.

Therivel explained that UScellular’s average backup solution was providing 22-times the revenue-per-gig of the carrier’s consumer-focused FWA service.

“It's not because I'm charging 22-times more,” Therivel added. “I actually charge very little for that backup solution. It's because usage is so small and so there's this big opportunity to go after enterprises to provide those backup solutions, even those primary solutions, because the revenue is attractive.”

Analysts have touted similar plans, having questioning the long-term financial viability of offering broadband services on the back of expensive wireless spectrum but have also pointed to the low-hanging financial fruit of such offerings.

A recent Rethink Technology Research report noted that U.S.-based FWA services are generating around $58 per month in revenue per connection, with enterprise opportunities set to drive further penetration.

“For the larger operators, which are in the business of providing commercial and enterprise services, FWA could be used as a great upselling tool,” the research firm wrote. “For business premises in underserved locations, FWA opens the door for upselling various additional software and networking services. For those using wireless as a failover connection, a robust FWA service could help displace the ISP providing the primary connection. For business with lots of locations, FWA could help reduce the connectivity charges they face, and provide a clear motivation from this total cost of ownership perspective.”

Therivel also touted network efficiency opportunities tied to network slicing and new antenna technologies that can help boost FWA revenue generation.

Network slicing is viewed as one of the key architectural features of a 5G standalone (SA) core deployment. It allows an operator to basically set up siloed virtual networks that act as independent, scalable networks and can support revenue-generating premium services. Analyst firms have for been touting the financial benefits of commercial network-slicing capabilities, especially tied to penetrating different market verticals.

“The first thing that's absolutely critical is being able to find a way to isolate those fixed-wireless users from the mobile users so that the mobile user isn't harmed by the 21-times the usage of our fixed-wireless customers,” Therivel said. “Anything that enables network slicing, whether it's technology or whether it's policy, is key to us being able to manage this business.”

Therivel also noted that being able to run FWA services via outdoor antennas attached to an enterprise versus having that antenna inside of an enterprise can double the efficiency of that deployment.

“Whether it's installations, whether it's things to make these installations more seamless, whether there's those of you in the equipment community, the OEM community, delivering those external antennas, specifically self-installed external antennas, is absolutely critical for us,” Therivel said.

Therivel’s comments come as operators have increased their focus on the 5G FWA market.

T-Mobile US, which is in the process of acquiring UScellular, recently surpassed 5.6 million total 5G-based FWA connections, admitted that the consumer space continues to be the biggest driver of that growth but that it’s expecting more enterprise traction going forward.

“I think a lot of that opportunity might still be in front of us on the business side,” T-Mobile US CEO Mike Sievert told investors during the carrier’s second-quarter earnings call.

Callie Field, president of T-Mobile US’ Business Group, added that the carrier was also continuing to see sequential FWA growth from its small and midsized enterprise market segments.

AT&T’s management expressed similar enterprise enthusiasm for 5G FWA growth. While the carrier remains the smallest and newest entrant in the specific space, CFO Pascal Desroches did note the carrier sees growth opportunities in the business space.

AT&T CEO John Stankey further explained that the carrier is remaining selective in where it launches 5G FWA support, with enterprise customers showing different usage patterns from the consumer market.

“We’re doing it … any place the right business customer wants to buy it we’ll sell it, and that means whether we’ve got capacity or not.” Stankey said. “The business product is a different product. The business product has different usage characteristics. The business product has different [revenue] characteristics, and the business product has different characteristics around how you can bundle and serve multiple products together.”

Stankey added that this enterprise usage characteristic allows for a profitable path toward further expansion of the 5G FWA service.

“You’ll continue to see us scale further in the business market,” Stankey said. “We’re still getting the distribution tuned and honed in that space, and I would expect you’ll see improvement in our numbers in the business segment as we move forward in the coming quarters.”

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg noted that the carrier would be revisting its 5G FWA growth projections as it nears its initial support cap of between 4 million and 5 million connections. Sievert echoed that sentiment, with Stankey continuing to stick to AT&T’s plans for 5G FWA growth based on profitability.

ABI Research recently forecast that it expects the global FWA market to growth at a 14% compound annual growth rate through 2029, hitting nearly 265 million connections over that time frame. However, it also noted that network integrity will be a key point to supporting that growth across all market segments.

“As the demand for a more connected world continues to grow, the performance and efficiency of FWA technology remain a key driver in bridging the connectivity divide, providing high-speed, reliable internet access in both the enterprise and consumer markets,” ABI Research Analyst Larbi Belkhit wrote.