GSA predicts that 4G/5G FWA CPE shipments will grow 23% in 2024, reaching 37.5 million units.
GSA’s Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) CPE market study collected responses from 30 CPE vendors and found that 4G/5G FWA CPE shipments are expected to grow 23% to reach 37.5 million units in 2024.
Additionally, 42% of these shipments will be for 5G-enabled FWA CPE, up from 34% in 2023. In contrast, shipments of 4G FWA CPE will decline 5% from 2022 to 2023, and fewer than half of respondents said they will deploy new 4G CPE products this year. According to John Yazlle, vice chair of the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum, this trend “proves beyond a doubt that 5G FWA has gone mainstream.”
He continued: “Not only is vendor shipment growth heavily dependent on 5G-enabled CPE devices, carriers are also beginning to look to FWA as a key driver for monetizing their 5G network investments.”
The report also found that indoor CPE still leads FWA, accounting for 60% of shipments, followed by battery-powered hotspots (25%) and outdoor CPE (15%). According to GSA, millimeter wave (mmWave) is also becoming increasingly prominent in FWA, with the number of mmWave-enabled 5G devices projected to grow 63% in 2023 and 22% by 2024. However, GSA noted that mmWave-enabled FWA products will continue to account for less than 10% of total 5G shipments.
Other key takeaways include a forecast that 8.9 million units supporting 5G standalone will be shipped this year, up from 6 million last year, and 63% of respondents saying they will deploy 5G RedCap CPE in 2024.
“The goal of the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum is to bring together the FWA ecosystem and educate the industry about the FWA market. Currently, there is a lack of market definition and consensus on the volume of FWA device shipments and installed base,” explains Julien Grivolas, Chair of the GSA 4G/5G FWA Forum. “This unique study will play a key role in providing facts and insights on the true state of the fixed wireless access market and how it is evolving and growing globally.”
