Fixed wireless is shaping up to be the go-to alternative to fiber to the home, but doesn’t really address the not in my backyard problem

“Consumers have an insatiable demand for bandwidth, especially in their house,” Eric Gronvall, CommScope VP Americas, Service Provider & Network Architecture, says in a new video blog. “To do that, the best solution is obviously a fiber to the home network. That means we have to come in their yard. We can do things from an industry [standpoint]to try and reduce the impact on that like utilizing connectorized technology or things like that, or we can look at new technologies like fixed wireless that might be able allow us to avoid coming into their personal space and disrupting their personal lives. Nothings really going to replace a fiber to the home network for that truly high level of performance.”

Let’s unpack that a bit. Not in my backyard (NIMBY) sentiment represents a major hurdle to not only telecom deployments, but all manner of municipal, private and public/private infrastructure-related projects ranging from roadwork and drainage improvements, to laying fiber or hanging small cells. As residents engage with project leaders, complaints about the potentially disruptive impact of, digging a trench for cable, for example, can serve to slow deployment, which costs money and makes investment less attractive.

A great example of this is a small cell project Verizon is working on in Palo Alto, Calif. The inherent nature of small cell deployments makes it near-impossible to develop a one-size-fits-all approach, which, in turn, makes it hard to define a scalable, cost-effective process.

In Palo Alto, Verizon wants to install 92 small cells, 80 on wooden utility poles owned by the city, and 12 on metal street lights, according to a project description received by the city on Jan. 30. Verizon contemplates three configurations, all containing one antenna, three radios and one disconnect. The variations are in whether the battery back up is located on the pole, on the ground next to the pole, or not needed at all.

The plans have gone through several iterations in response to issues raised by the residents and the local Architectural Review Board for decision. Those issues include “a final shade of brown paint for equipment attached to wood poles. Additionally, should all pole mounted equipment including mounts, cabling and conduits be painted?” Relative to the ground cabinet, Verizon wants to know if should be painted to blend in with surroundings? If so, what color green? Or concealed in street furniture? What about an art wrap? Is that preferred to street furniture? And so on.

To the community buy-in piece, which speaks directly to this NIMBY issue, a report from The Mercury News gives some insight. Local resident Eric Kang, who lives near one of potential sites, told the publication: “You can see it right outside the window. I’m concerned about its effects on my health, my child’s health. These things are very powerful. These things are constantly on.” Verizon is planning a series of community meetings to engage with residents that live near proposed sites, which, again, costs time and money.

Gronvall mentioned embracing fiber to the home alternatives like fixed wireless access. That topic has been getting a lot of attention as of late given trials from both AT&T and Verizon. However, the primary talking points haven’t focused on fixed wireless access as a way to save residential users the headaches that come with truck rolls, construction and house calls. Rather, the emphasis has been on fixed wireless as a way to save carriers the expense of deploying fiber.

So-called 5G fixed wireless access has emerged, particularly in the United States, as the likely first phase of commercial 5G-branded services. This presents operators with the opportunity to offer 5G services as 3GPP continues to standardize the technological aspects of 5G, while gaining better insight into the characteristics of mobile 5G, especially as it relates to tapping into high capacity millimeter wave spectrum. Another key factor underpinning the interest in fixed wireless relates to the business case in that a gigabit per second signal can be delivered without the costly and time consuming process of running fiber to every home, apartment or business, effectively addressing the lingering last mile problem with fiber–and side-stepping NIMBY sentiments. But just the NIMBYism related to fiber trenching. To deliver fixed wireless, antennas will have to live close to the end user; see Kang’s comments above. It would appear that, regardless of the solution or configuration, there’s still that underlying issue that can likely only be addressed through consumer-level education.

AT&T is using Austin as a testbed for its 5G fixed wireless access services. In addition to an enterprise trial conducted with Intel, AT&T is testing transmission of DirecTV to consumer premises. Click here to learn more about that trial activity.