FWA has move from a niche alternative to a strategic pillar of broadband portfolios alongside fiber, and operators are rethinking deployment models, return on investment, and customer experience. With that growth comes a new set of demands — on networks, on devices, and on the companies designing them. Vantiva has been doing the work in this space, advancing FWA through advanced CPE design, strong software integration, and ongoing R&D to help operators get the most from their 5G investments.
With MWC 2026 spotlight on what’s next for, we sat down with Olivier Lafontaine, VP Broadband Solutions, to hear his on how telcos is evolution and what it means for the industry.
Hi Olivier, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has become an established home broadband technology. How do you see the market evolving from here, and how is its role changing within broader broadband strategies?
The first large‑scale FWA deployments were led by pioneering 5G mobile operators who had few, if any, alternative technologies to offer home internet services bundled with their mobile plans.
Today, however, Tier-1 operators with strong fiber assets have also developed dedicated FWA strategies. They have recognized that fiber and FWA are complementary technologies. FWA allows them to accelerate broadband revenue growth in areas where 5G coverage is already in place, while maximizing the monetization of their 5G spectrum and infrastructure investments.
For telcos, FWA has moved from being a niche offering to a strategic component of their broadband portfolio.
So, as fixed-line telcos increasingly engage in FWA, how do they determine the right deployment strategy?
The winners won’t frame the debate as “fiber or FWA.” Instead, leading telco operators will be asking: Where does their investment deliver the fastest and strongest return?
How is the growing penetration of FWA among telcos reshaping the requirements for FWA CPE?
FWA is growing into a mainstream broadband option, and telcos are no longer treating it as a separate category. Over the years, operators have built a sophisticated broadband ecosystem — remote management, standardized data models, open middleware, whole-home Wi-Fi, and vertical applications for security and parental controls — and they now expect FWA CPE to fully integrate into it.
That investment is driving new requirements for FWA devices and the underlying SoCs across performance, interoperability, software integration, and service enablement. Operators hold FWA CPE to the same standard as any other broadband device in their portfolio.
From recent FWA deployments, what key insights have emerged for operators and the broader industry?
Early on, operators relied on attended installation to support FWA subscribers. Over time, however, The high costs and limited scalability of that approach pushed the industry toward self-installation. Indoor FWA solutions have gained ground ever since, balancing ease of deployment with cost efficiency.
Operators are reporting challenges with indoor FWA due to weak 5G signal reception — what are the implications for CPE design?
It’s true that indoor FWA CPEs experience signal attenuation, particularly at frequencies above 2.5 GHz. This can lead to performance issues such as reduced spectrum efficiency and network congestion.
This pushes device requirements in a new direction with improved receive sensitivity to capture weaker signals indoors, andbut also higher transmit efficiency to maintain reliable connectivity and maximize spectrum utilization.
At Vantiva, we address this challenge by combining advanced Indoor5G™ antenna design with intelligent software. Indoor5G™ maximizes mid‑band 5G reception indoors through high‑gain, high‑efficiency antennas that self‑optimize in real time to maintain the best possible connection. This is complemented by the NaviGate 5G™ setup app, which guides users to optimal CPE placement during self‑installation, ensuring strong performance from day one while reducing service calls.